by The spread of false stories surrounding three recent extreme weather events in Latin America shows how misinformation on climate change in Spanish and Portuguese can undermine efforts to address and mitigate the effects of global warming in the region , according to a new study released Wednesday.
Environmental organizations Roots and Friends of the Earth, part of the Coalition for Climate Action Against Debris, commissioned progressive research firm Objective to analyze how cyclone flooding in Brazil and Peru along with Wildfires in Chile are fertile ground for misinformation to thrive online.
Online posts in Brazil, Peru and Chile falsely attributed the events to dam breaks, arson and climate research centers that study the atmosphere – causing confusion, deflecting conversations about extreme weather preparedness, and at the politics of climate action, the study concluded.
The new research points to a “troubling cycle,” Max MacBride, head of disinfection at Roots, said in a statement.
A few cInspirational theory jobs – and a huge online presence
A cyclone hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil in September. The storm’s unusually heavy rain and gusty winds caused massive flooding and landslides that killed more than 30 people and severely damaged countless homes.
Although online news sources reported the floods in the context of a climate disaster, disinformation spreaders were falsely claiming that the floods were the result of the opening of three dam gates.
The false story began to spread a few days after the storm when the center-right local leadership in the region publicly questioned the “opening of the gates” for the company operating the dams, as stated in a media statement, according to the studies. The company responded, saying there was no evidence to suggest the dams had an impact on the floods.
The Brazilian state environment department then confirmed that the floods were caused by the cyclone and had nothing to do with the dams, but the false story continued to spread online.
The study examined 66,800 posts, including posts on social media site X and comments on the news portal, about the floods and cyclone. A small number of them (1,800 posts) were also found to discuss the dam gates. But this small segment reached a much larger audience of more than 5.2 million people, showing how social media algorithms can contribute to misinformation.
“We won’t be able to protect people in Latin America from climate change if professional dissidents continue to manipulate weather disasters by gaming social media algorithms,” Michael Khoo, director of the climate disinformation program at Friends of the Earth, said in a statement.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
In Brazil, videos and discussions posted to TikTok and YouTube spread misinformation and conspiracy theories about open dam gates – instead of the cyclone – causing the floods. These gathered hundreds of thousands of views and were instrumental in the spread of such misinformation on both platforms.
TikTok said it prevents misinformation on climate change that undermines established scientific consensus. The platform relies on moderators, experts and fact-checkers to monitor content, and users can also use TikTok’s misinformation reporting tool to report false content.
YouTube did not respond to a request for comment, but shared with NBC News some of its previous efforts to combat climate misinformation in languages other than English. A spokesperson said in August that YouTube’s systems “do not recommend or prominently surface content that contains misinformation about climate change,” and instead search results and recommendations feature videos from authoritative sources. It also uses “monetary policies that prohibit ads that contradict the authoritative scientific consensus on the existence and causes of climate change.”
The study also cites an investigation by a local Brazilian newspaper that found the spread of incorrect information on WhatsApp about the dam causing the floods. Hundreds of thousands of people appear to have watched videos shared on the encrypted messaging app that included false claims that politicized the disaster, as the left-wing party in power currently built the dam amid the misinformation.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp, did not respond to a request for comment.
Like Brazil, Peru was also hit by a cyclone in March. Cyclone Yaku killed more than 50 people and damaged more than 20,000 houses.
After the storm, social media posts emerged suggesting that Cyclone Yaku – a program that studies parts of the atmosphere that has long been the target of conspiracy theories and even flat Earth theories – was created by HAARP and the Jicamarca Observatory in Peru, radar. facility is also used to study parts of the atmosphere.
Spanish-language climate misinformation related to HAARP is extremely common worldwide, with study researchers identifying 10,655 posts across multiple social media platforms between January 1 and October.
But the presence of the Jicamarca Observatory in Peru was a link to connect the wider HAARP conspiracy theory to the Yaku Zircon.
Researchers discovered hundreds of thousands of views of such posts across various social media platforms such as X, TikTok and Facebook.
The ‘only reason’ for a forest fire is arson
In Chile, when more than 400 forest fires broke out in parts of the cities of the central and southern regions in February amid extreme heat and drought, a small number of posts on X alone received more than a million views blaming the wildfires on the arsonists, according to the study. .
Wildfires at the time were mainly caused by a combination of factors: a historic drought, an ongoing heat wave and an increase in the amount of unoccupied agricultural land at risk of wildfires.
However, local authorities in Chile have arrested at least 17 people who allegedly started several forest fires intentionally or negligently while carrying out activities such as welding and burning animal wool.
According to the study, Chile’s political leaders, mostly right-wing and conservative, followed these arrests, falsely claiming that arson was “the sole cause of the devastating wildfires,” the report said.
When researchers analyzed a random sample of 20,000 X posts and comments on a news portal, they found 184 posts that mentioned the words “trackers” or “terrorists.” Those posts reached more than 1.5 million people, in part because high-profile individuals shared them online, according to the study.
This helped steer the online conversation away from the impact of climate change and how it can make wildfires worse by suggesting that criminal actions were the cause of the worsening fires, the study found.
According to the report, online misinformation surrounding the three events blamed the destruction on a particular “scapegoat”, drawing anger from local audiences, and on persistent political divisions or pre-existing false narratives – because HAARP changes the weather – and then he deflected the conversation. away from ongoing climate issues and ways to tackle them.
While some social media companies have implemented content moderation guidelines to curb climate change misinformation on their platforms, members of the Climate Action Coalition Against Disinformation say they must “act make it much stronger to stop the spread of misinformation online” in all languages, MacBride and Khoo said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
