You Don't Say! Breitbart Leads The World In Creating & Spreading Climate Lies On Facebook
Breitbart is the most influential producer of climate change denial posts on Facebook, according to a report released Tuesday that suggests a small number of publishers play an outsized role in creating content that undermines climate science. The far-right news and commentary site is one of just ten publishers responsible for nearly 70 percent of interactions with climate change denial content on Facebook, according to a study by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), shared exclusively with The Washington Post. This group of publishers, nicknamed the “Toxic Ten” by CCDH, includes organizations with links to foreign governments, such as Russia Today, as well as with ties to fossil fuel giants, such as Media Research Center.
The report includes a broad range of climate disinformation, including articles that undermine the existence or impacts of climate change or misrepresent data in ways that might erode trust in climate science experts. This includes a Breitbart story published in March that suggested the Green New Deal, proposed legislation to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, would likely result in mass lockdowns if passed into law.
“Every major environmental figure [and] climate activist has praised the COVID [coronavirus] lockdowns as essentially a model for what we should be doing with climate,” the article reads. The study comes amid increasing political concern about the catastrophic impact of climate change, as global leaders gather in Glasgow for the U.N. brokered COP26, described as a last chance for nations to hammer out a unified plan to significantly cut greenhouse gases.
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Yet amid these changes, posts that deny the existence of climate change were still attracting an audience on the Facebook. One November 2020 post from the Federalist Papers, a conservative news site, falsely says that the Biden administration’s commitment to climate action is “all based on a lie.” It linked to an article saying climate scientists shouldn’t be believed. Federalist Papers and Media Research Center did not respond to requests for comment.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/02/facebook-climate-change-misinformation-breitbart/