TWITTER BANS CLIMATE CHANGE PROPAGANDA ADS AS DENIERS TARGET PLATFORMS
0Twitter bans climate change propaganda ads as deniers target platforms
Twitter is banning advertisements that promote climate change denial in an effort to curb the reach of groups seeking to downplay the extent of the environmental crisis. Under the new policy. advertisements that contradict the “scientific consensus” on climate change will be prohibited along with other types of banned ads such as campaigns that contain violence. profanity or personal attacks. Twitter will be relying on reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. a unit within the United Nations. to inform its decisions about which advertisements break its rules. according to the company. “We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetized on Twitter. and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis.” the company said in a blog post. “We recognize that misleading information about climate change can undermine efforts to protect the planet.” Twitter’s Friday announcement — coinciding with Earth Day — is part of a larger trend by social media companies to address criticism from activists that they are doing too little to combat climate change disinformation campaigns from spreading rapidly on their massive networks on their sprawling networks. In recent years. tech companies have been introducing new labels and information hubs to elevate accurate information about the environment while taking steps to limit the spread of falsehoods. It also coincides with Elon Musk’s $43 billion hostile takeover bid for Twitter. which he launched last week amid weeks of talk about the importance of free speech. At a TED conference last week Musk called the company the public town square. “I think we would want to err on the. if in doubt. let the speech. let it exist. But if it’s a gray area. I would say let the tweet exist.” he said. Last year. Twitter announced it would start directing users to online hubs containing “credible. authoritative information” on climate change that would appear in users’ “Explore” tabs. their Twitter search portals. and relevant trends lists. Google similarly announced a move to ban advertisements that contradict scientists’ understanding about the existence and causes of climate change. Facebook has also launched a Climate Science Center to give users a go to place to find accurate information on climate change. Still. research shows that climate change denial groups have managed to evade social media companies’ content moderation systems to spread falsehoods about the environment such as there is no evidence for the adverse effects of climate change. A 2021 report by the liberal leaning advocacy group Avaaz found that between April 6. 2021. and Nov. 15. 2021. the top five climate change misinformers managed to rack up more than 60 million views on posts containing climate falsehoods — most of which were not labeled by Facebook as false.
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