Climate Denial Spreads on Facebook as Scientists Face Restrictions

This is very disturbing. Hayhoe is a respected scientist.
In the past, I have been reluctant to move from Facebook to some alternate social media site, because of the hassle, but this has made me much more open to doing so.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-denial-spreads-on-facebook-as-scientists-face-restrictions/

The company recently overruled its scientific fact-checking group, which had flagged information as misleading

By Scott Waldman, E&E News on July 6, 2020

A climate scientist says Facebook is restricting her ability to share research and fact-check posts containing climate misinformation.

Those constraints are occuring as groups that reject climate science increasingly use the platform to promote misleading theories about global warming.

The groups are using Facebook to mischaracterize mainstream research by claiming that reduced consumption of fossil fuels won’t help address climate change. Some say the planet and people are benefitting from the rising volume of carbon dioxide that’s being released into the atmosphere.

•••••

Now, Facebook appears to be weakening a firewall it has built to fact-check such climate denialism. The company recently overruled a fact-check from a group of climate scientists, in a move that concerns researchers about a potentially new precedent by the platform that permits inaccurate claims to be promoted if they’re labeled as opinions.

At the same time, Facebook has placed restrictions on one of the country’s most visible climate scientists, Katharine Hayhoe, of Texas Tech University and a lead author of the Fourth National Climate Assessment. She has been blocked from promoting videos related to climate research, a move that has limited her efforts to refute false claims.

Facebook has previously identified Hayhoe’s educational climate videos as “political.” As a result, they are categorized by the platform as a social issue that requires Hayhoe to register them by in part providing personal information that she fears could expose her to personal attacks.

•••••

E&E News previously reported that Facebook intervened to reverse a fact-check that prevented a group—which claims that human-caused carbon dioxide is beneficial—from advertising on the site. By labeling the false claim as “opinion," Facebook permitted the group, named the CO2 Coalition, to resume promoting misinformation (Climatewire, June 23).

•••••

In response, a group of scientists with Climate Feedback—a part of Facebook’s approved fact-checking network—evaluated the post and found that it relied on “cherry-picked” evidence and was misleading. It was marked as “false.”

But weeks later that label was quietly removed. Officials with the CO2 Coalition said they were helped by a “conservative contact” at Facebook whose intervention resulted in getting the decision reversed.

•••••

Facebook revised its policy and considers climate change to be in the “environmental politics” advertising category. Users who want to pay to promote their pages, so they are seen by larger audiences, are no longer required to register as a political organization. But they must register using their legal name, social security number, and other information from their passport or driver’s license.

That could expose scientists, especially women, to harassment, said Hayhoe, who has been threatened online. One critic recently sent her pornographic videos.

Hayhoe has declined to comply with Facebook’s requirements for promoting her posts. She says the platform created inappropriate burdens for scientists who want to share objective information about climate change.

“These are the facts,” she said. “These videos have been peer-reviewed, and I still can’t boost them on Facebook.”