Facebook Blocks Climatologist Katherine Hayhoe From Promoting Climate Science Videos
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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.
Hayhoe said Facebook is a valuable platform for reaching people outside of partisan boundaries. She said it's where she is connected to friends and family, former college roommates, and other people who might be skeptical about climate change. It's a way to share science with them that doesn't feel like a political attack, she said. Placing her work on the same level as groups that seek to confuse the public about climate science gives climate denial organizations equal footing that's unwarranted, she said.
"What I share on Facebook is explicitly for the purpose of people feeling comfortable sharing it with their family, information on positive hopeful solutions, information on unexpected messengers from faith groups, the military, conservative spokespeople," Hayhoe said. "Facebook is a place where people are connected across tribal lines in a way they aren't connected from other platforms."
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https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2020/07/06/stories/1063511857
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