Christopher Furlong / Getty Images.
A new report shows that Facebook only flagges half of the climate change denier posts on its platform.
The company promised to add ‘informational labels’ to misled posts on climate change in Canada and other countries last year. The labels lead to the Climate Science Information Center with facts from top climate organizations and resources for taking action on climate change.
A new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate has revealed that half of the content coming from its’ toxic ten, the digital publishers whose articles account for nearly 70% of Facebook interactions related to climate denial material, is not being seen.
Articles without information labels featured Breitbart articles claiming global warming to be a hoax, a Washington Times article saying that Covid-19 and Climate Change are being used as a way of stealing our liberties and Breitbart articles calling a climate scientist a climate alarmist.
Imran Ahmed (CCDH chief executive) says, “Meta is exacerbating our climate crisis by not doing even the bare minimum to address the spread climate denial info.”
Meta claims that it is concerned about climate change, however they have not stopped the dissemination of misinformation regarding climate change via their platform. Furthermore they have failed consistently to use measures that they acknowledge are limited in efficacy such as labeling.
The CCDH discovered that Facebook had not responded in a consistent manner to misleading posts. All posts from Russian state media website RT were flagged. However, only six out of ten came from Newsmax or the Media Research Center funded fossil fuel companies.
Facebook users shared 542,000 comments, likes and shares on the 93 untagged posts.
This report comes on the heels Frances Haugen’s claims that Facebook misled investors regarding its attempts to combat climate misinformation and Covod.
Campaigners call for legislative action
“Facebook has consistently shown they can’t be trusted. Facebook must open its books, and legislators need to step in and demand full transparency from Facebook and all other social media platforms, ”said Michael Khoo (co-chair of the Climate Disinformation Coalition of Friends of the Earth).
America and the rest of the world require full transparency in data about the ecosystem of disinformation. This includes issues such as climate, race, gender, or public health.
Facebook was contacted for an answer.
