Recently, the giant online social media platform, ‘ Facebook ‘ was in news again as the media talked about the false claims being made on the platform in its campaign regarding the climate as the Submit COP26 was nearing.
Recently, a conservative media network named Newsmax used the platform to run an ad campaign and called the man-made global a hoax.
It was days after when Facebook’s Vice President, Nick Clegg applauded the company’s effort to spread the word about climate awareness and its effort to reduce the misinformation spreading about it. Nick wrote a blog appreciating the company as the Glasgow Submit began.
The ad ran on the platform attracted more than 200,000 views and questioned the authenticity of the company.
The ads talked about Candace Owen saying that we are just required to trust the government with their policies on climate change while another U.S libertarian in the ad said the modern doomsayer is wrong in their prediction for the climate crisis in the States.
The owners of the company Newsmax, Owen and Daily wire didn’t comment on the ad campaign run by their companies.
Facebook is not for the first time in the limelight. Facebook is known for its ads and content. Facebook’s name has been changed to Meta. It doesn’t have any policy for unpaid and paid ads regarding climate misinformation. Following this controversy, Google said that it would now stop showing ads on its platform that spread misinformation. It would also stop promoting misinformation on YouTube and its platforms but shall allow the discussion for all the misleading content.
Facebook doesn’t have any policy for filtering out the ads. It generally doesn’t check the ads until and unless it feels there is some harm to the public as it was during the case of Covid 19. During the pandemic, the company stopped promoting ads that violated the Covid guidelines. The company has a unique method of removing ads. It keeps a check on the rank of the posts and ads and removes them after it’s being proven false by its third-party fact-checkers.\
Facebook uses Reuters for the checking of the facts. It is now coming up with an idea to check the facts and also may have strict restrictions for the false claims made on their platform on any issue. It will not allow the advertisers to advise such false ads. There is an exemption given to the politicians on the platform.
The company spokesperson said that the ads remain on the platform for seven years and remain in the ad library as Facebook provides transparency to run these for a longer period.
The UK based Influence Mao noticed the same trend on Facebook. Fossil fuel companies and lobbying groups spent $574,000 on political and social issue Facebook ads during the summit which is called greenwashing
Facebook has now started adding informational tags around climate sensitive topics. A Climate Science Centre is a new hub that is opened by Facebook for spreading awareness about climate and climate crises.
Employees and researchers have said that the company needs to keep a check on the policy for ad campaigns and also provide correct information regarding sensitive topics like Climate. The company needs to be strict and transparent with all the ads and campaigns.
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