8/15/2023 0 Comments Warroom twitter![]() His tweets included claims that the Earth is cooling and that carbon dioxide does not cause warming. He has posted regularly using the popular denialist hashtag ClimateScam, peddling misleading claims on topics such as arctic ice, temperatures and droughts.ĭespite the reported rise in hate speech on Musk’s Twitter, they scored a rare success this year, successfully booting off a prolific Australia-based tweeter of climate misinformation – on the grounds of “hateful conduct”, according to a screenshot published by a TNT member. The user returned with a new handle before the takeover and now has a “verified” checkmark, available for sale under Musk. Spreading false information about Covid-19 “is fairly common for science-denial accounts: there’s a lot of overlap due to conspiracy-thinking tendencies for the fact-adverse”, Peter said. ![]() “It’s a real struggle to keep up.”Īmong other accounts targeted by TNT, a prominent US climate change denier was suspended in 2021 for “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to Covid-19”, according to a screenshot posted by one of his followers. “We’ve had to change tactics” – less reporting of abusive accounts and more debunking of science claims, he added. “We got some fairly big accounts removed” but many came back “when Elon Musk kind of opened the floodgates again”, said Tom. The account was suspended but the same user appeared to have returned with a different handle, posting “I’m back” in October 2022, and resumed retweeting material denying the causes of climate change. “You can call it trolling, I call it having fun with idiot climate alarmists,” he wrote in one exchange. An online archive of the Twitter account shows it branded climate change a scam and ridiculed activists and scientists to thousands of followers. In one example, TNT reported a Canada-based climate change denier for repeated threatening and offensive behaviour. Twitter’s press office and members of its sustainability team who were laid off after the takeover declined to comment. Research by monitoring groups indicates a spike in misinformation on the platform as moderation was gutted and a paid verification system boosted conspiracy theorists.Īdding to the turmoil, self-proclaimed free speech absolutist Musk has restored what researchers estimate are tens of thousands of accounts once suspended for violations, including incitement to violence, harassment and misinformation. That approach appeared to work – before Musk’s turbulent US$44bil acquisition of Twitter last October. These deniers are quite often very violent in their responses to climate misinformation being corrected. “We’re more effective if we’re very quiet about it. to get (climate) deniers and ‘sceptics’ and just generally nasty people reported on Twitter,” a Canada-based member named Peter told AFP. “We make sure that we’re as under the radar as possible. They also shared screenshots confirming numerous suspensions. TNT members showed AFP archives documenting their campaigns, including a spreadsheet logging thousands of Twitter accounts they reported on grounds ranging from spam and harassment to hate speech and threats. Like other TNT members interviewed by AFP, he requested that his real identity be withheld to avoid online harassment. ![]() “If they’re saying something racist or offensive or misogynist, we can get them kicked off,” one Germany-based TNT member, a 45-year-old scientist who asked to be identified as Tom, told AFP in a Zoom interview. Since its founding in 2019, TNT claims to have secured the suspension of some 600 accounts of climate change denialists by reporting them for other infringements, including hate speech, that are officially recognised by the platform as valid grounds for termination. But a secretive global community of about 25 scientists and activists, calling themselves Team Ninja Trollhunters (TNT), found a roundabout way to tackle it. PARIS: For years, a band of science-loving “troll hunters” hounded climate change deniers off Twitter – but Elon Musk’s takeover has upended their efforts, with many ousted accounts back, pushing fresh disinformation.ĭespite the threat climate change poses to the planet, disinformation about it has gone largely unsanctioned on Twitter.
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