SOCIAL MEDIA & CLIMATE MISINFORMATION
By Aimee Doyle.
Climate misinformation is becoming increasingly difficult to spot. In addition to rampant misformation in the traditional sense, there’s increased sophistication and instances of greenwashing. All of this is a huge focus of policy concern, as it delays urgent climate transition requirements. Social media is a particularly important space where these issues need to be addressed.
What action is being taken? This year, social tech giants once again used the occasion of Earth Day to announce their own plans in tackling climate-related misinformation, acknowledging their power in averting the worst of climate breakdown. Here, we take a look at the actions major companies have taken so far…
META
In 2021 META launched its Climate Science Centre, which saw large investment into a climate misinformation programme. META partnered with a network of over 90 independent fact checkers, who review climate related claims. If information is found to be false, it is labelled with a warning message and the visibility reduced. This content will also not be approved to appear as an ad anywhere on the platforms. META also developed its Climate Info Finder, which allows users to search accurate information and link the source directly into comment threads, among other means of supporting the spread of accurate climate information on their platforms.
Rating: getting better - making positive steps
Meta seems to be using its capacity to influence public opinion for significant good, through education and awareness. These are positive steps in this respect.
On Earth Day 2022, Twitter made the move to ban ads that denied the scientific consensus on the climate crisis. Subsequently, however, Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform later in October saw an increase in climate misinformation.
A report at the time found Twitter was actively recommending the term ‘climate scam’ to those who searched ‘climate’ during the UN climate talks in November.
There was a call for greater transparency around the recommendation of terms to users, as ‘climate change’ related searches were receiving higher engagement but ‘climate scam’ continued to appear at the top of recommended searches on the site.
Prominent ‘climate deniers’ whose accounts had been previously deactivated, were able to re-join the platform following Musk’s takeover. December 2022 saw the highest number of climate sceptical tweets and retweets to date - a concerning 850,000.
Rating: not good enough - further action needed
Currently, Twitter is still a key platform for spreading false information around climate change and needs to take greater action in reducing influential climate change deniers on the platform.
TIKTOK
This year marked TikTok’s turn to take action to ban all climate change denial content. Currently, this involves directing climate related content searches to ‘authoritative info’ sourced in partnership with the UN. This follows the same method as Twitter, placing focus on the existing scientific consensus to validate and redirect claims.
It follows a report a year ago, which revealed TikTok to be ‘a hub for climate misinformation’ which is more important than ever, given the increasing presence of TikTok as a news source for youth. TikTok released a blog post on the topic, that included the quote “Trust and authenticity fuel the creativity of TikTok—and we believe we have an important role to play in empowering informed climate discussions on our platform.”
Rating: continuous work needed
TikTok’s continuous updates will hopefully help to limit the impact of climate change denialism and counter-progressive messaging on the platform.
BRAND TAKEOUTS
Ultimately, social platforms have recognised the importance of playing a part in tackling the climate crisis. This is an essential step. Leaning on scientific evidence and reliable third party sources allows for transparency and authenticity in the approach. Whether their intentions are genuine or to ensure public favour, remains to be seen.
Any claims around sustainability require the proper substantiation to back them up. Brands should welcome discussion and queries around their practices - particularly on social media, community management is crucial in monitoring and engaging in conversation. Brands who approach the topic with real intentions and measurable goals will stand out. Amongst a youth audience in particular, this is a non-negotiable in terms of the brands they support.