Social-Media
Facebook tells Elizabeth Warren that there are two different climate checking standards
In response to criticism from the Democratic Senators, Facebook says the third party fact-checking partners check and rate climate misinformation, and there has never been a ban on them. The letter says that Facebook will continue its policy of exempting the fact-check of clear opinion content. There is no satisfaction in the senators.
The tech behemoth replied that it does not consider all climate change content to be a "opinion" of the climatic change content. However, climate change opinion articles are not subject to verification, according to Facebook policy which began in 2016.
Senators Elizabeth Warran, Tom Carper, Sheldon Whitehouse and Brian Schatz stated in a statement: We asked for Facebook leadership to close the gaps that allowed climate disinformation to spread on their platforms. Their answer: we should trust them, even if the result is the distortion of facts and the mass spread of falsehoods, to draw up and follow their own rules and methods. The future of the planet is at stake and no company should be too large, too powerful and too opaque for its role in the climate crisis. No exception is Facebook.
Facebook was accused of allowing climate denial on its platform to become more effective.
Last August, an Op-ed published by the Washington Examiner, which casts doubt on the precise nature of models of climate change, removed the "false" rating. The article was initially "highly misleading" by the independent fact checker of Facebook, as the information and cherry selected data were imprecise. But, former Trump consultant Mr William Happer, the CO2, Coalition, a non-profit group, protested.
E&E News reported in June that Facebook had finally caved. Facebook created a de facto gap for opinion articles, according to E&E News, so as to escape de facto inspection. But Facebook says it's the policy all the time.
The Senators sent a letter on 15 July to CEO Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook as a result of the pollution. They objected to the alleged lapse and asked Facebook to explain how the rating decision was taken. Climate crisis and degradation of the environment aren't opinion issues, they wrote.
'Statutor Scott Johnson, the science editor for one of Facebook's third party fact-checkers called Science Feedback, said to The New York Times in July: Placing statements that are verifiably false in a public opinion area should not give immunity from fact-checking.
In its reply to the senators, Facebook told its independent fact-checkers that the content of the opinion is not subject to fact-cheque. When anybody presents content based upon the underlying false information as an opinion in an open or editorial form, it remains eligible for fact-checking, however,, it added. (The company told The New York Times that the policy was introduced in 2016.)
The senators in their letter asked if climate change disinformation is treated differently from fake COVID-19 posts, and if so, why. The New York Times told Andy Stone, Facebook's director of communications policy, that misinformation on Climate Change is not a priority on Facebook.
According to the World Health Organization, climate change is expected to result in another 250,000 deaths every year from malnutrition , malaria, diarrhea and heat stress from 2030 to 2050.
The Democratic Senators are not the only ones concerned about the damage that could be caused by climate change. According to a recent survey conducted by the Progress think tank, a majority of polled voters believe Facebook should label opinion articles containing false climate change data as false.
