Global Witness stimulated the experience of a climate skeptic on Facebook, and found out that within 2-3 clicks users are pushed towards news and data that deny climate change or suggest that it could be fake. Most pages cite exaggerated past predictions of climate change to make their point and the more one engages with the posts the more such posts are shown, the study suggested.
IPCC says misinformation about climate change is one of the major roadblocks in motivating governments and communities towards taking meaningful action. Meta (previously Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg in last year's congressional hearing admitted that climate misinformation was one of the major concerns on the platform and started identifying and flagging posts on climate misinformation.
Social media misinformation is a very complex problem, one that has come to light very recently and forces us to ask whether social media companies should censor speech, if yes then to what extent. Should they just let everything thrive on their platforms, especially when their platforms are designed not just as an information dissemination system but as an engagement-driven entertainment platform, primarily aimed at making profit.
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Technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master, it was rightly said. Electronic devices have grown into an inevitable part of our daily lives.
