Facebook (now Meta) has been facing allegation after allegation recently. With its former employees coming up with evidences against its lack of efforts in security and privacy of users and always keeping profits over it was not enough, the tech firm is now facing allegations against climate change misinformation from researchers.
Misinformation spread is not something new and Facebook has always been called out on this by various firms, law makers and companies. Though the social giant has claimed that they do remove misinformed content from their app, many believe that the statistics they provide of content removal seems a little off.
This time around, the Stop Funding Heat and the Real Facebook Oversight Board, which is a group of academics, journalist and activists have presented that Facebook misinformation related to climate change misinformation has risen up to 77 percent compared to before. This is a massive increase and considering how world leaders have gathered in Glasgow to determine the steps to take for the future in order to protect earth from further damage, is very heart breaking.
According to the data gathered by Stop Funding Heat posts related to climate misinformation get around 818,000 and 1.36 million views daily and only 4 percent among them are actually fact checked by Facebook. The statistics report further evaluated that among many accounts 48 focused primarily on spreading false climate information and 113 accounts which was spreading misinformation actually were monetized. This means advertisers were running ads on their pages and they were being paid in return. What shocks us the most is that how is Facebook, one of the leading social platforms allowing such things to happen?
Considering how Facebook for long has been the leading tech firm in the world, it’s very disappointing to see such strong allegations related to misinformation and security being rose against it. It makes us think, is the platform even worth the hype that it gets when it can’t control its users’ data or protect the damage it will cause the world?
Read next: Facebook group admins, sit still, Facebook is bringing some new and really cool features to the groups
Misinformation spread is not something new and Facebook has always been called out on this by various firms, law makers and companies. Though the social giant has claimed that they do remove misinformed content from their app, many believe that the statistics they provide of content removal seems a little off.
This time around, the Stop Funding Heat and the Real Facebook Oversight Board, which is a group of academics, journalist and activists have presented that Facebook misinformation related to climate change misinformation has risen up to 77 percent compared to before. This is a massive increase and considering how world leaders have gathered in Glasgow to determine the steps to take for the future in order to protect earth from further damage, is very heart breaking.
According to the data gathered by Stop Funding Heat posts related to climate misinformation get around 818,000 and 1.36 million views daily and only 4 percent among them are actually fact checked by Facebook. The statistics report further evaluated that among many accounts 48 focused primarily on spreading false climate information and 113 accounts which was spreading misinformation actually were monetized. This means advertisers were running ads on their pages and they were being paid in return. What shocks us the most is that how is Facebook, one of the leading social platforms allowing such things to happen?
- Also read: Past Comments From Newly Appointed Meta CTO Reveal His Stance On Harmful Content On Facebook
Considering how Facebook for long has been the leading tech firm in the world, it’s very disappointing to see such strong allegations related to misinformation and security being rose against it. It makes us think, is the platform even worth the hype that it gets when it can’t control its users’ data or protect the damage it will cause the world?
Read next: Facebook group admins, sit still, Facebook is bringing some new and really cool features to the groups