Thread by @ISDglobal

Today, ISD and @caadcoalition launched a new flagship report on disinformation and the climate crisis, unpacking the narratives and tactics that emerged around the COP27 summit in Nov. 🌍🔥🚨

A🧵of key findings, and what we can do in response, below. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition First, we found the increasing centrality of an 'anti-woke agenda' around climate. Accounts following the 50 top climate misinformers on Twitter were engaging w/ a broad conservative agenda, for which climate has become a key talking point, according to mapping by @Graphika_NYC.

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC Just 12 of these 'misinfo influencers'– known for sharing sceptic/delayist/denialist content on Twitter– garnered more than 343k shares on 388 climate-themed posts around #COP27. Nine of the 12 are verified accounts w/ followers ranging from 65k to 1.9m. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC Their arguments include promoting the 'necessity' of fossil fuels and discrediting green technologies, in particular wind and solar energy and electric vehicles. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC While climate issues aren't the main content strategy, such attacks regularly feature alongside other misleading, disproven and/or unsubstantiated claims on topics such as electoral fraud, the pandemic, ‘elites’ running child trafficking rings & more. isdglobal.org/explainers/the…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC Another big takeaway is the widespread framing of climate action as an 'elitist plot'. Attacks increasingly tend to fall to an 'us vs them' frame on any climate-themed issue i.e. COP summits, achieving #NetZero, disaster relief or household heating bills. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC References to conspiracies like the 'Great Reset' were recurrent on social media among climate delayers and deniers, and the World Economic Forum was a frequent target. More details on the conspiracy's origins can be found here. isdglobal.org/digital_dispat…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC On Meta, we found that 3,781 ads were active from fossil fuel-linked entities, who spent about $3-4 million USD btwn 1 Sept and 23 Nov 2022 (around #COP27) on Facebook and Instagram. Nine of 10 top pages for ad volume and/or spend were industry PR and lobbying groups.

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC Data from @seda_lab shows that Energy Citizens (a lobby group for the American Petroleum Institute) ran more daily ads than all other pages in our analysis, while America’s Plastic Makers spent approx. $1.1m on climate-related campaigns in this timeframe. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab Furthermore, ads from ‘Carbon Major’ companies such as Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil touted their green credentials and role in achieving #NetZero during COP27, despite investment portfolios that remain overwhelmingly biased towards oil and gas. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab Popular techniques in ads included emotive messaging around livelihoods, natl security & sovereignty in relation to fossil fuels. The phrase ‘energy independence’ was the most common (1925 ads) in Meta's Ad Library, followed by ‘American energy’ (1558 ads) isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab Takeaway 3? Climate denialism is back. The hashtag 'ClimateScam' spiked on Twitter in July and by December had accrued over 362k mentions (including retweets) from 91k unique users. It has been promoted by an array of high-follower and verified accounts. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab The most active Twitter user on the 'ClimateScam' hashtag displayed bot-like behaviour, posting more than 60k times from July-Dec 2022. The account was created in April 2020 & appeared to automatically re-share content containing this phrase. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab Shockingly, the term ‘Climate Scam’ is being actively recc'd by Twitter for organic searches of ‘climate’– often as the top result– as well as when ‘#climate’ is included within a post. This remains the case despite direct flagging by @caadcoalition to the platform.

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab We found that the term 'Climate Scam' is being promoted by Twitter despite data that shows more activity/engagement on other hashtags such as #ClimateCrisis & #ClimateEmergency. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab The prominence of ‘ClimateScam’ cannot be explained through personalisation (e.g. browsing history) or popularity, and re-stresses the need for transparency from big tech on how/why platforms surface content to users, especially during events like COP27.
isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab Finding 4: the playbook of climate disinfo. ISD monitored 5 key narratives before, during and after #COP27: Cost of living crisis, culture wars & conspiracism, loss & damage, anti-green tech, & necessity of fossil fuels. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab These 5 narratives– all prone to mis- & disinfo on climate– generated 267,000 original posts matching our keywords, produced by 139,889 unique actors. This content was shared 1,284,969 times from 29 Oct to 27 Nov (before, during and directly after #COP27). isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab Our findings– using the CARDS framework– suggest that ‘anti-woke’ messaging and conspiracies eclipse the reach of any other narrative. ‘Climate actors are alarmist’ received more likes than any other sub-claim, followed by ‘climate change is a hoax’. cardsclimate.com

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab A newer trend was ‘wokewashing’: adopting ‘progressive’ rhetoric to oppose climate action. Such framing spanned various arguments, incl. the false claim that green tech such as electric vehicles is bad or even worse for the environment than fossil fuels…
isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab …Or that climate action is a form of ‘neo-colonialism’. The latter was pushed by Chinese & Russian networks incl. state-linked media outlets. Similar claims were made by US and intl. pundits who implied the #NetZero agenda is counter to human rights. isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab The complete findings and recommendations on how to combat these issues are available in our report 'Deny, Deceive, Delay Vol. 2: Exposing New Trends in Climate Mis- and Disinformation at COP27' available today. Read it here.
isdglobal.org/isd-publicatio…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab This report is a culmination of ISD’s efforts during #COP27, leading a real-time Intelligence Unit on behalf of @caadcoalition. Our ‘COP, Look, Listen’ disinfo briefings from the summit can be accessed here. caad.info/reports/cop27-…

@caadcoalition @Graphika_NYC @seda_lab We are proud to partner with 14 members of @caadcoalition to deliver this research:
ACT Climate Labs
CASM Technology
@ClimateNexus
@Code4Africa
@consciousadnet
@DeSmog
@DeweySquare
@e3g
@foe_us
@mmfa
@Purpose
Roots - @Greenpeace
@UCSUSA
@seda_lab