2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #26

A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 21 through Sat, June 27, 2020

Editor's Choice

Facebook creates fact-checking exemption for climate deniers

Earth at Night

Facebook is "aiding and abetting the spread of climate misinformation,” said Robert Brulle, an environmental sociologist at Drexel University. “They have become the vehicle for climate misinformation, and thus should be held partially responsible for a lack of action on climate change.”

Brulle was reacting to Facebook's recent decision, made at the request of climate science deniers, to create a giant loophole in its fact-checking program. Last year, Facebook partnered with an organization, Science Feedback, that would bring in teams of Ph.D. climate scientists to evaluate the accuracy of viral content. It was an important expansion of the company's third-party fact-checking program. 

But now Facebook has reportedly decided to allow its staffers to overrule the climate scientists and make any climate disinformation ineligible for fact-checking by deeming it "opinion." 

The organization that requested the change, the CO2 Coalition, is celebrating, E&E news reported on Monday. The group, which has close ties to the fossil fuel industry, says its views on climate change are increasingly ignored by the mainstream media. Now it plans to use Facebook to aggressively push climate misinformation on the public—without having to worry about fact checks from climate scientists.

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Heated website. 

Facebook creates fact-checking exemption for climate deniers by Emily Atkin, Heated, June 24, 2020


Articles Linked to on Facebook

Sun, June 21, 2020

Mon, June 22, 2020

Tue, June 23, 2020

Wed, June 24, 2020

Thu, June 25, 2020

Fri, June 26, 2020

Sat, June 27, 2020

Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 27 June, 2020


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