Climate crisis misinformation is thriving on Elon Musk’s Twitter, research shows
Volume over time of Twitter posts (original and retweets) containing #ClimateScam, 1 October 2021 – 13 December 2022. At COP26, outright denialism was seemingly outpaced by subtler ‘discourses of delay’ and attacks on climate action. In 2022, denialist content made a stark comeback on Twitter in particular, with the hashtag #ClimateScam spiking out of nowhere in July 2022. Since then, Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) analysis has recorded over 362K mentions (including retweets) originating from over 91k unique users, with daily mentions never dropping below 1000 posts. The term often appears to be trending despite data that shows more activity and engagement on other hashtags such as #ClimateCrisis and #ClimateEmergency. The source of its virality, including explicit promotion via Twitter’s recommendation algorithm, is therefore unclear, and again highlights the need for transparency on how and why platforms surface content to users. Graphic: Climate Action Against Disinformation
The study, published on 19 January 2023 by Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), said Twitter was recommending the hashtag “#ClimateScam” when users search “climate.” At the time of publication, Twitter was recommending the hashtag to several Insider employees as the top search result for “climate.”
Referencing the hashtag, the study said that “in 2022, denialist content made a stark comeback on Twitter in particular.”
The hashtag suddenly spiked on Twitter in July, and had been on an upwards trajectory ever since, the study said. By December, more than 91,000 unique users had mentioned the tag more than 362,000 times, it added.
Graph estimating the prevalence of subclaims around climate, as defined in Coan, et al. (2021). The dots represent the proportion of posts in the General Sample where a particular subclaim is present. The figure also provides the 95 percent confidence interval associated with each estimate. Graphic: Climate Action Against Disinformation
The report said the term appeared to be trending despite “data that shows more activity and engagement on other hashtags such as #ClimateCrisis and #ClimateEmergency.” The researchers added that its prominence couldn’t be explained by personalization, volume of content, or popularity.
The source of the #ClimateScam hashtag was unclear and highlighted the need for transparency on how content was surfaced to users, per the study.
Only some of the content under the hashtag was labeled as misinformation, the report said.
Share of retweets of original posts mentioning one of #ClimateScam, #ClimateCrisis or #ClimateEmergency, 19 July 2022 – 13 December 2022. Graphic: Climate Action Against Disinformation
Elon Musk has slashed Twitter’s content moderation team since he bought the platform in October last year. He has also taken issue with some of Twitter’s past content moderation decisions, including the suspension of former US president Donald Trump following the January 6 Capitol riots.
Representatives for Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Network map showing followers for key amplifiers of climate disinformation during COP27, grouped by common traits or identifying factors. Network mapping around COP26 showed that, among accounts following key climate misinformers on Twitter, 7.5 percent were primarily focused on climate – for COP27 the cluster constitutes a mere 0.33 percent. The shift reveals how right-wing ‘culture war’ influencers are becoming the most prominent voices in spreading climate misinformation. Such content drives an ecosystem in which environmental issues, including COP summits, can more easily be framed and amplified as a polarising topic – a trend covered in depth by a recent peer-reviewed paper in Nature Climate Change. Overall, the audience for key misinformation influencers has a similar composition to last year’s COP26 network. Accounts in the ‘U.S. Conservative’ cluster comprise the largest portion of the map, including highly influential pundits like Dinesh D’Souza (2.9m followers) and Tom Fitton (1.9m followers) alongside elected officials like House Rep. Lauren Boebert (2m followers) who focus on broadly right-wing “culture war” issues. Taken together, the US, UK, and Canada Conservative clusters make up 72.25 percent of the overall network. While climate issues do not dominate their content strategy, these accounts do share related misinformation during key climate-related events, including COP, or as part of wider outputs. Climate content regularly features alongside other misleading, disproven and/or unsubstantiated claims on an array of topics, including around electoral fraud, vaccinations, the COVID-19 pandemic, migration, and child trafficking rings run by so-called ‘elites’ Graphic: Climate Action Against Disinformation / Graphika
Deny, Deceive, Delay Vol. 2: Exposing New Trends in Climate Mis- and Disinformation at COP27
By Jennie King 19 January 2023
(ISD) – Following our unprecedented efforts at COP26, the CAAD alliance spearheaded a real-time unit to track, expose and counter anti-climate attacks around the 2022 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (COP27). Managed by ISD, the initiative brought together the expertise and knowledge of 15 global partners, spanning Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Disinformation about polar bears from climate change denialist Bjorn Lomborg, posted on Twitter on 5 November 2022. Graphic: Climate Action Against Disinformation
This report is a culmination of our research since October 2022, building on the insights from our ‘COP, Look, Listen’ Briefings, while laying a roadmap for action in the year ahead. The intelligence will drive CAAD’s ongoing work and advocacy goals, including: engagement with big tech to craft a proportionate, systemic response to climate disinformation on platforms; public education and ‘pre-bunking efforts’ at the grassroots; and work with multilateral institutions like UNFCCC to formalise the response to disinformation as part of broader climate policy.
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