Overview
- The records were unsealed in late October 2026 and include March 7–8, 2023 meeting notes that discuss a “Whisper strategy” aimed at turning academics against Jonathan Haidt.
- One set of notes attributes to Curtiss Cobb a stated goal to “get the academic community to disavow Haidt” and records the line “can't co-opt them, so how do we enrage them.”
- The meeting notes also suggest recruiting a named academic to write a takedown piece, a plan that Columbia statistician Andrew Gelman says never materialized because Meta never contacted him.
- Separate emails in the files show Meta staff complained that the company’s legal team was blocking or forcing redesigns of internal studies on youth social‑emotional trends while executives worried public presentations could prompt questions about app design.
- The documents were produced in a federal multidistrict lawsuit by school districts and remain under court review by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and special master Suzanne Segal, and reporters have found no public proof the suggested covert tactics were carried out.