Twitter bans climate change science defying ads
Microblogging giant Twitter recently announced plans to stop advertisements that deny the reality of climate change from featuring on its platform. Making the announcement on Earth Day, the company stated that: “Ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis.”
Casey Junod, Twitter Global Sustainability Manager also said in a blog post, “Misleading advertisements on Twitter that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited, in line with our inappropriate content policy.”
Commenting further on the new policy, Junod said: “We recognise that misleading information about climate change can undermine efforts to protect the planet.”
There was no indication that the change would affect what users post on the microblogging site, which along with Facebook has been targeted by groups seeking to promote misleading claims about climate change.
Though Twitter may not be the first to emplace such a policy as Google already has it in place, the move is, however, significant as it is opposed to billionaire Elon Musk, the man bent on a hostile takeover of the microblogging company, who is of the view that people should be able to say pretty much whatever they want on the platform.
Meanwhile, Twitter has said it would provide more information in the coming months on how it intends to provide reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations for its users to engage in, including from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The U.N.-backed science panel’s reports on the causes and effects of climate change provide the basis for international negotiations to curb climate change.
Twitter last year introduced a Topic feature to help users find conversations about climate change and rolled out hubs of “credible, authoritative” information on an array of high-profile topics including the science backing climate change.
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