Meta discussed ‘whisper strategy’ against social media critic Jonathan Haidt, files show

Court documents reveal staff considered ways to ‘get academic community to disavow’ influential US author

Meta staff discussed deploying a “whisper strategy” to undermine the influential US academic whose work has inspired a global social media crackdown, according to court documents.

Employees at the parent group of Facebook and Instagram sought to discredit Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation, a book that helped tip the debate about online safety towards more stringent measures such as the under-16 ban in Australia.