A report from Climate Action Against Disinformation has detailed the role of big tech companies — like Meta, YouTube, and X, formerly known as Twitter — in spreading falsehoods about climate science and renewable energy. It does not make for encouraging reading.
What's happening?
Summarized by TechInformed, the CAAD report found that big tech platforms are amplifying misinformation via accounts that boast hundreds of thousands of followers.
It also noted a common theme of "wokewashing," in which accounts demonstrating climate skepticism use human rights concerns to make a case against renewable technologies, electric vehicles, and other green initiatives.
As TechInformed summarized, the report found that misinformation surrounding renewable technologies includes claims that they are expensive, unreliable, and environmentally harmful. Conspiracy theories are also being pushed, which suggest the move to greener policies by international governments is a form of social control.
One case study detailed that content on YouTube, X, and elsewhere falsely claimed that wildfires in Greece, Canada, and the Amazon were started intentionally, with "direct energy weapons" and land acquisition by the rich among the theories posited for why these burning events began.
Advertising by dirty energy companies on social media was another area of concern, allowing these huge organizations to push false information to a large audience about their efforts to implement the use of renewable energy or to reduce planet-warming pollution.
Why is this misinformation concerning?
Misinformation can spread rapidly via social media platforms because of slow efforts — or no efforts at all — to censor false statements, misleading advertising, and conspiracy theories. These tech companies allow people and partisan organizations to amass large followings and spread lies with minimal checks or repercussions.
When it comes to the climate, this is especially problematic, as the world continues to heat up because of human-caused pollution. This warming leads to extreme weather conditions becoming stronger, longer, and more common, and it's putting various populations in increasing danger.
"It is virtually certain that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, and extreme weather has again wreaked havoc around the world," Kate Cell, a Union of Concerned Scientists member, told TechInformed.
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"As this report shows, the fossil fuel industry and its political allies are wielding climate disinformation to maintain their profits and lock the world's people into an increasingly dangerous future."
What's being done about media misinformation?
"While the world meets to try to keep the Paris Agreement promise, the fossil fuel industry pollutes the information ecosystem to cloud our minds," CAAD Intelligence Unit Coordinator Sean Buchan said, per TechInformed. "A fossil fuel ad ban is imperative to protect public health and accelerate climate action."
It remains to be seen whether tech companies will heed this call, which some liken to many countries' strict regulations or bans surrounding tobacco advertising due to the product's harmful health impact. However, the CAAD raised awareness about a crucial way to prevent the spread of misinformation and help us take greater steps to a cleaner, greener, and safer planet.
We can also make a difference by being mindful of our online practices and the platforms we choose to use and by validating the sources of information being pushed on the internet.
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