Meta schemed whisper strategy to discredit influential social media critic Jonathan Haidt: bombshell docs

Meta employees schemed about how to “get the academic community to disavow” social media critic Jonathan Haidt — a ploy to tamp down claims that its apps were fueling a teen mental health crisis, according to newly unsealed court documents.Haidt, a social psychologist who penned the best-selling book “The Anxious Generation,” is one of the most influential figures speaking out against Big Tech and the effects that smartphones and social media have had on kids.When Meta lost a historic social media addiction case in Los Angeles earlier this year, Haidt wrote that “history will judge them as harshly as the tobacco industry.”Documents unsealed in California federal court last Friday revealed the lengths to which Meta was willing to go to undermine his advocacy.

One filing contained notes from a March 2023 meeting of Meta’s “well-being” team.The unnamed author of the notes wrote that an executive named Curtiss – likely a reference to Meta’s research chief Curtiss Cobb – had set a “goal” to discredit Haidt.The employee wrote that Curtiss “thinks we need to focus on the media” to convince reporters that Haidt is “not credible.” Meta’s staffers also apparently discussed contacting a media figure referred to as “Gellman” to “write a take-down piece” about Haidt.

It was not immediately clear who Gellman was.Other meeting notes discussed the viability of a “whisper strategy” to “turn academics against Haidt” and consider ways in which “debunking Haidt can happen.”Representatives for Meta and Haidt did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.It’s unclear if Meta ever actually followed through on the plan.Still, Fairplay, an online watchdog and one of the most vocal critics of Meta’s targeting of kids to boost profits, expressed outrage over the revelations.“These internal documents from Meta demonstrate once again that the company is far more concerned with managing its reputation than actuall...