X ranks last on climate change misinformation scorecard

X earned last place in a new ranking of social media platforms and their actions against climate change misinformation.

Researchers declared the platform, formerly known as Twitter, is “heading in the wrong direction.” 

In the past several years, platforms have taken steps to mitigate the spread and monetization of climate change misinformation and disinformation. The purpose of the report by the Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition is to guide policymaking in the future, the group said.

In their recent assessment, the authors found that Pinterest ranked best, “proving that they’re leading the industry on policies that mitigate climate misinformation.” Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok have also taken steps to address climate misinformation, but policy enforcement is lacking, the report said. 

X received only 1 point out of a possible 21 on the report’s scorecard. CAAD said the platform is “lacking clear policies that address climate misinformation, having no substantive public transparency mechanisms, and offering no evidence of effective policy enforcement.” 

The platform’s point came from a privacy-related question. X had a point suspended because there was a lack of data on whether there is a demonstrable history of being able to enforce its policies. 

“While they announced an advertising policy that prohibits climate denial ads in the spring of 2022, there’s no data as to whether this policy has been enforced or not,” the report said. 

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last October has caused confusion surrounding which policies are still standing and which are not, the authors wrote. 

“While some policy content on Twitter/X’s website dated before the acquisition could potentially benefit the fight against climate disinformation … many policies are no longer being enforced, according to outside sources,” the report said.  

Climate denial content is ticking up on X, the authors found. Last year, #ClimateScam topped trending charts briefly and continued seeing organic traffic via the platform’s recommendation algorithm, a 2022 CAAD study found. 

In an effort to mitigate the spread of false information, CAAD recommends social media platforms engage in non-English language enforcement, monitor greenwashing advertising tactics, update privacy policies and produce regular reporting on company misinformation policies. 

“Climate change is a multifaceted, complicated problem to address,” the authors wrote. “The spread of climate disinformation doesn’t have to be.”