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During COP26, Facebook Served Ads With Climate Falsehoods, Skepticism (reuters.com) 175

Facebook advertisers promoted false and misleading claims about climate change on the platform in recent weeks, just as the COP26 conference was getting under way. From a report: Days after Facebook's vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, touted the company's efforts to combat climate misinformation in a blog as the Glasgow summit began, conservative media network Newsmax ran an ad on Facebook (FB.O) that called man-made global warming a "hoax." The ad, which had multiple versions, garnered more than 200,000 views.

In another, conservative commentator Candace Owens said, "apparently we're just supposed to trust our new authoritarian government" on climate science, while a U.S. libertarian think-tank ran an ad on how "modern doomsayers" had been wrongly predicting climate crises for decades. Newsmax, Owens and the Daily Wire, which paid for the ad from Owens's page, did not respond to requests for comment. Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta, does not have a specific policy on climate misinformation in ads or unpaid posts. Alphabet's Google said last month it would no longer allow ads that contradict scientific consensus on climate change on YouTube and its other services, though it would allow content that discusses false claims.

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During COP26, Facebook Served Ads With Climate Falsehoods, Skepticism

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  • Haha. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Thursday November 18, 2021 @10:00AM (#61998939)

    Join the club, adding to the plethora of falsehoods at cop26 itself.

  • by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Thursday November 18, 2021 @10:03AM (#61998955) Journal

    In another, conservative commentator Candace Owens said, "apparently we're just supposed to trust our new authoritarian government" on climate science, while a U.S. libertarian think-tank ran an ad on how "modern doomsayers" had been wrongly predicting climate crises for decades.

    Humanity will never cease to amaze with our ability to deny what's in our faces, till our suffering can't be hand-waved away as someone else's manipulation.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 )

      Trump said it was false. That's good enough for 50% of the population.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      I don't completely blame them if I see how some of that reality is being reported. For instance, the official Dutch meteorological institute published figures on the expected rise of sea levels. The numbers were alarming... but as it turns out, they took the very worst of the IPCC predictions (also one of the least likely scenarios), took the top of the error band, applied an additional 20% margin to that for "uncertainty" (because science!), and that was the number they published as "This is what we're f
  • Oh no! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Thursday November 18, 2021 @10:06AM (#61998977) Journal

    During COP26, Facebook Served Ads With Climate Falsehoods, Skepticism

    Oh no ... not ... skepticism!!!

    Death to the infidels!

    We can't be too vigilant. Relax for a moment, and we might have free speech breaking out or something!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      I can't believe they still allow wrongthink on the Internet. Think of the children!
  • Give them enough money and they'll post whatever you want.

  • Am I the only one finding hard to read the article about ads riddled with ads?

    Had to stop. Very disorientating, ADHD-unfriendly.

  • by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Thursday November 18, 2021 @10:26AM (#61999067)

    here in the good old US of A everything, and I mean everything, is about the money. If you dig deep enough you will find it. This applies to every issue of the day, including Climate Change. How is it that the very same people that are shouting from the rooftops about rising sea levels are the same people buying lavish mansions in Miami, barely a few feet above sea level? How is it that the same people lecturing us about carbon credits are flying to these virtue signaling events, like COP26, in carbon spewing private jets?

    I can't say that I watch Newsmax very much at all but if they are reporting that climate doomsday has been reported for dozens of years they are correct. That is a fact and I say this knowing that facts are largely considered optional in modern debate, replaced by emotions and feelings. Why is it that Al Gore is never called out for his ridiculous claims about climate catastrophe? Perhaps his documentary An Inconvenient Trust should be revisited: https://www.nationalreview.com... [nationalreview.com]

    Gore, to his credit, did create the framework for the modern climate hypocrite. I'll give him that much. On his climate coattails we have John Kerry and George Clooney and Jeff Bezos and countless others: https://www.ccn.com/george-clo... [ccn.com]

    Welcome to modern America where the only acceptable opinions are ones that are blessed by the elites.

    • That's really the answer. Cut our GDP in half and our (or any countries) carbon output would drop by roughly that amount. But nobody is willing to stomach this solution.
    • Why is it that Al Gore is never called out for his ridiculous claims about climate catastrophe?

      LOL. Even people that lean left, sometimes even hard left, call Gore out CONSTANTLY for his hypocrisy. Though some of that criticism has faded as he's become less and less of a spotlight hog over it. MANBEARPIG exists for a reason, and it wasn't to support Al Gore's hyperbolic hoop jumping logic.

    • Why is it that Al Gore is never called out for his ridiculous claims about climate catastrophe?

      He has been, many times.

    • by Cyberax ( 705495 )

      I can't say that I watch Newsmax very much at all

      You lie. You slurp that sludge all too much.

      but if they are reporting that climate doomsday has been reported for dozens of years they are correct. That is a fact and I say this knowing that facts are largely considered optional in modern debate

      And you start with spewing sludge and not facts. Nice.

  • They'll allow videos that discusses false claims (a phrase they could have just replaced with the word misinformation), but since they now have a policy to hide the dislikes, there will be no clue how many people disagree with the misinformation views presented in the content. You'll only see how many likes it has garnered and could be lured into thinking the content is real, not fake, information.

    • You'll only see how many likes it has garnered and could be lured into thinking the content is real, not fake, information.

      How many people "like" a video is a very poor way of judging whether the content is true. There are a great many views that are very popular and widespread, and have no foundation in fact. Unfortunately, it is very difficult these days to decide whether a source of information is reputable and reliable, when politicians come out with "alternative facts", and news media connive in this by publishing total rubbish for the sake of gaining viewers and readers. There used to be mechanisms for exposing errors and

  • Almost every ad I see on FB is a scam. Here's an example.
    There is a laser rust removal tool that appears to work like magic. It costs over $10K
    I see ads on FB that use the exact same video, scraped from the legit site, showing how the tool works, then offering it for sale at an absurdly low price, under $100
    Legitimate ads for real products from honest suppliers are rare

  • perspective (Score:2, Troll)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 )

    To a dogmatic Christian Evangelical, anything not in the bible is a 'falsehood'.

    To a dogmatic Ecomarxist, anything contrary to (whatever eco-narrative is current today) is 'falsehood'.
    Which is funny, because I'm pretty sure these are the same people who mocked GWBs simplistic "with us or against us" assertion in the early 2000s.

    I find it curious that 'skepticism' is now lumped in with ACTUAL LIES. Telling.

    • by nagora ( 177841 )

      I find it curious that 'skepticism' is now lumped in with ACTUAL LIES. Telling.

      It is lies - for a start, it's a lie about how you spell "Scepticism".

  • This sums up why all the hate by the corporations and leftists is directed at Facebook and not the other platforms. They dare to run content from newsmax and the daily wire. That is literally it. That content is overwhelmingly liked on Facebook and consumed much more than the leftists sources that they want to b consumed. The corporatist media hates that. Hence the war on Facebook while you can post any sort of anti white racist or anti Semitic drivel or climate change hyperbole on Twitter and go unchalleng
  • by magzteel ( 5013587 ) on Thursday November 18, 2021 @11:45AM (#61999305)

    Is a climate conference some kind of sacred special event now with new special content rules?

  • Facebook used to show these ads before the event. Yes, they showed them during the event, too, but they will definitely continue showing them after the event as well.

    It is called a business.

  • by MacMann ( 7518492 ) on Thursday November 18, 2021 @02:18PM (#61999831)

    The late Dr. David MacKay laid out the problem quite well for anyone to see what solutions we have available to us and how effective they will be. He published a book on this, made this book available for free as a PDF to download, on a website, and spoke of this in a number of interviews and talks. He's been gone for a few years now but the math he left behind can be updated to match current realities. He was very conservative in his estimates, and the results show order of magnitude margins for error, so what he said then still applies today.

    The people that take global warming serious will be aware of Dr. MacKay's work, or would have gone through the same calculations independently to reach the same conclusion. We need nuclear fission power, and lots of it, or we will not succeed in lowering CO2 emissions. That does not mean using nuclear power exclusively, it means we can't close all of our existing nuclear power plants and not build more to replace them.

  • Skepticism is part of the Scientific Process, i.e. show me the evidence of your hypothesis, your claim. And that is during "normal" times. During highly political times, nearly religious mania like times, skepticism is even more necessary.
  • ...it should be clear that, Facebook is all for fossil fuels, Christian white supremacist militias, batshit crazy evangelical pastors & radio show hosts, stupider than stupid conservative politicians, & science denialism, especially against life saving medical treatments & against acknowledging that life on earth is getting more difficult for humans because we're polluting it too much. The only time Facebook don't actively promote that frenzied toxic mess is when their lawyers are afraid they'll
  • conservative media network Newsmax

    If Newsmax is running ads promoting climate disinformation (or even information), it's clear that it isn't a "media outlet", it's a propaganda outlet. News organizations report on the news using their own resources. They don't seek to push messages on other platforms.

  • ... crazy seeing the two of them working so closely together. Again. Like 2016. And 2020. And now.

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