FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Oct. 27, 2026
Contact: Ashwin Verghese, Communications Director, [email protected], 508-263-0289
Statement on Meta Attempting to Discredit Jonathan Haidt
Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin released the following statement today:
Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin said: “A company that comes up with a secret plot to take down a popular academic is not a company we can trust with our kids’ well-being. These internal documents from Meta demonstrate once again that the company is far more concerned with managing its reputation than actually making Instagram safer and less addictive for young people. Rather than engage with the substance of Jonathan Haidt’s evidence-based criticisms, Meta launched a covert plan to discredit an academic whose best-selling book helped galvanize a parent movement. It’s also revealing that Meta completely undermined its own well-being team to the point that employees made a spreadsheet to track all the times in-house counsel interfered with their work.
“At this point, it’s clear that Meta has no interest in engaging critics in good faith or even making its products safe for kids, so it’s up to Congress to step in and force the company to stop addicting and harming our children. We call on Congress to stop protecting Meta and pass the game-changing Kids Online Safety Act by the end of the year.”
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About Fairplay
Fairplay is the leading nonprofit committed to helping children thrive in an increasingly commercialized, screen-obsessed culture, and the only organization dedicated to ending marketing to children. Fairplay works to enhance children’s well-being by eliminating the exploitative and harmful business practices of marketers and Big Tech. Learn more at www.fairplayforkids.org.