Anyone that takes what scientists have to say as seriously as they should would know that climate change is a very real problem that people tend to be facing. However, in spite of the fact that this is the case, a lot of people often refute the evidence of climate change and attempt to assert that it is either not as bad as scientists are making it out to be or alternatively that it isn’t happening at all.
This is an ideology known as climate change denial, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that Facebook might be playing a role in allowing people to continue believing in it. A human rights organization by the name of Global Witness conducted research that showed how Facebook’s algorithm traps people in echo chambers which is harmful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making climate change deniers feel like their beliefs are proven and valid even though they are nothing of the sort.
The way this research was conducted was that two dummy profiles were made on Facebook, with one profile following pages that showed skepticism towards climate change and the other following pages owned by bodies that are trying to research the reality that of its existence. The climate change denial profile ended up seeing lots of recommended posts that would further that pretend individual’s beliefs that climate change is not actually happening, with some of the recommended pages going as far as to call it an outright hoax.
Facebook’s algorithm is designed to recommend things that people are already interested in, but it should not create positive feedback loops for harmful ideas such as climate change denial with all things having been considered and taken into account. This is just the latest in a long line of controversies that the once widely beloved social media platform is currently going through, and many of these controversies suggest that it has a big role in the spreading of various forms of misinformation.
Read next: Meta releases how it has been fighting Silent Errors off their systems for so long
This is an ideology known as climate change denial, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that Facebook might be playing a role in allowing people to continue believing in it. A human rights organization by the name of Global Witness conducted research that showed how Facebook’s algorithm traps people in echo chambers which is harmful because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making climate change deniers feel like their beliefs are proven and valid even though they are nothing of the sort.
The way this research was conducted was that two dummy profiles were made on Facebook, with one profile following pages that showed skepticism towards climate change and the other following pages owned by bodies that are trying to research the reality that of its existence. The climate change denial profile ended up seeing lots of recommended posts that would further that pretend individual’s beliefs that climate change is not actually happening, with some of the recommended pages going as far as to call it an outright hoax.
Facebook’s algorithm is designed to recommend things that people are already interested in, but it should not create positive feedback loops for harmful ideas such as climate change denial with all things having been considered and taken into account. This is just the latest in a long line of controversies that the once widely beloved social media platform is currently going through, and many of these controversies suggest that it has a big role in the spreading of various forms of misinformation.
Read next: Meta releases how it has been fighting Silent Errors off their systems for so long
