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'Private Jet' Disinfo Back at COP27, as Attacks on Activists and Scientists Swamp Other Disinfo [1]
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Date: 2022-11-16
In yesterday's sixth edition of COP, Look, Listen, [which will be available as soon as our overworked friends in Sharm el-Sheikh can get it online, if it isn't already by the time you read this, — Ed.] we saw the return of the viral disinfo from COP26 regarding private jet hypocrisy, even more heinous harassment of climate activists, and confirmation from a machine learning program that classifies disinfo that climate attacks are by far the most prevalent type of disinformation on social media.
While the start of COP27 did have a small spike in posts about private jets by users attempting to recycle last year's viral disinfo meme that portrayed an old photo of private jets that took people to the Super Bowl , it wasn't until the Daily Mail ran a piece on it that we saw activity on par with last year.
"Ironically," the bulletin reads, "the Daily Mail story that sparked the disinfo trend cites, but does not link to, both an AFP debunk of the ‘400 private jets’ claim and CAAD's own report on how hypocrisy and elitism are key opposition narratives." Oh! Maybe it's a debunking? Nope!
"The Mail story then reiterates the claim, with alleged corroboration that 300-400 private jets landed for COP27 from 'a talk-show host close to the Egyptian leadership' and an unnamed source 'close to the Egyptian aviation authorities.' They do note that other media cited much lower numbers, based on public services that track private jet flight paths. So on the one hand you have publicly available information, and on the other you have a talk show host and supposed government source who apparently won't go on the record about how many plans landed…
Unfortunately, attacking the rich for flying in private jets is actually one of the more wholesome and approaching legitimate lines of pushback from deniers around COP27. Because in addition to the disgusting sexual assault-charged posts about Greta Thunberg discussed Monday , there are "Social media posts with substantial traction [that] contain abusive language towards activists, and sometimes implicit endorsement of or calls for violence. For instance, a meme joking about activists being flattened by a steamroller has achieved strong engagement in conservative Facebook groups in the UK and Australia."
Oh charming, just "joking" about running over protestors! Hilarious and definitely not at all a deliberate reference to that time a white supremacist lethally ran over protestors and inspired Republicans to try to legalize running over protestors .
Seriously though, the steamroller posts are "clearly a joke," but that doesn't make it a laughing matter; humor is a common tool in online communities, often providing an “innocent” entry point for more extremist or conspiracist rabbit holes. The leaked style guide for the Neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website was explicit about hate speech and humor , saying: “The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not” before adding that “this is obviously a ploy.”
And they're not all joking, either. On Telegram, far-right activist and anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson wrote : “There will be a day when someone snaps and starts throwing punches and kicks at these just stop oil lot.” He also shared a video that seemingly shows a passerby attacking a climate activist with an approving message.
But beyond the likes of one of the UK's most risible racists , more centrist voices are getting in on the attacks, with Michael Shellenberger saying "Climate fanatics are weaponizing mental illness ," while Roger Pielke Jr. tweeted that “faux apocalypticism” makes climate activists “develop mental health issues.” His post was shared by professional denier accounts like Bjorn Lomborg, Net Zero Watch, and CLINTEL .
With even Pielke Jr. and Shellenberger going on the offense (or just being offensive), it should come as no surprise that, as COP Look Listen explains, "accusations of ‘alarmism’ levied at activists, scientists and decision-makers, as well as conspiracies alleging a ‘climate hoax,’ have become the most popular lines of attack on social media. This is despite the prevalence of (and continued investment in) greenwashing content and efforts to soften more ‘toxic’ climate denial."
CAAD worked with the CARDS project to have its peer-reviewed machine learning model classify the social media posts being monitored. They found that content attacking "alarmists" and denying the science as a hoax was twice as prevalent as posts undermining solutions or making softer claims about climate change not being all that bad, or not human-caused.
Which is why the COP LOOK LISTEN bulletin concludes that because "the conspiratorial approach to outright climate denial is flourishing on social media," then "Big Tech must act on harassment at scale and at pace, rather than merely moderating for specific claims or relying on fact-checkers to protect users."
Just imagine if, instead of waiting for content to go viral to then justify a fact check which then takes a week to publish which only then triggers some sort of limitation on the post, Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies simply stopped algorithmically amplifying people like Robinson and Shellenberger, who exploit their platforms to build brands based on hate and hippy-punching?
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/16/2136508/--Private-Jet-Disinfo-Back-at-COP27-as-Attacks-on-Activists-and-Scientists-Swamp-Other-Disinfo
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