At the same time that world leaders gather at summits in Glasgow hopefully they will do something about climate change, a study is now being released that says the problem of climate misinformation has gotten worse on Facebook this year. The study was conducted by climate activist group Stop Funding Heat and Real Facebook’s Supervisory Board. This is not Facebook’s oversight board, but rather a group of academics, journalists, and activists who have merged without a direct connection to Facebook.
Reactions, comments, and shares to every Facebook post containing climate information have increased by as much as 77 percent since January, according to the study. Every day, posts like this get between 818,000 and 1,360,000 views. Less than four percent of the posts reviewed by the platform are validated. The study examined 195 “pages” and cohorts as well as 48,700 posts written in English between January and August. These include 41 accounts that deal only with climate-related misinformation, including one that calls itself Friends of Science. However, the three who spread the most lies were Fox News, Breitbart and Sean Hannity according to the study.
The entire study can be read at the link below.
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