Social media companies have justifiably come under fire for their role in the spread of false or misleading information online. Increasingly, disinformation on polarizing issues such as Covid-19 and election fraud have become commonplace on social media platforms. In fact, one study found that Americans consumed more news from unreliable sources in 2020 compared to the previous year. And on Twitter, misinformation was 70% more likely to be retweeted than tweets with factual information.
Unfortunately, with the fossil fuel industry pouring millions into spreading climate disinformation, narratives meant to create distrust around climate science have also made their way to social media.
It’s hard enough to make strides when it comes to climate action. Green-lighting blatant lies about the scale of the climate crisis cannot continue — social media companies must be held accountable for their role in worsening our planet’s fate. Our case study on the Texas power outage in 2021–where wind turbines were falsely blamed– found that 99% of the disinformation was not even fact checked. This had real world consequences. In just 4 days the false image of a frozen wind turbine rocketed across social media, and became a talking point for the Republican Governor.
As corporate polluters gain more influence over our communications systems, we have launched a campaign to pressure social media companies and Congress to tackle climate disinformation. We have focused on the major platforms...
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