A recent report released by Global Witness found Facebook’s advertising algorithm guilty of pushing climate skeptics towards disinformation and conspiracy groups.

Researchers created two users, “Jane” and “John,” who followed and liked established and credible scientific pages. Then, they tracked what Facebook’s algorithm suggested to both accounts.

Jane’s account received content denying man-made climate change, including posts accusing the “green movement” of “enslaving humanity” and claiming measures to mitigate the effects of climate change are a hoax.

Meta, which owns Facebook, announced that they would be granting a one million dollar fund towards a program to combat misinformation about climate change.

Ms. Tiwari, a staff member at WJPS, said, “Some people need to recognize that climate change is impacting human lives and spreading misinformation is not going to help.”

Meta claims that they are flagging and taking down posts that spread misinformation. However, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that less than 10% of all misinformation and propaganda posts were labeled as such.

Daniela Santamaria, a senior at WJPS, said, “The biggest problem is that the algorithm reinforces the negative opinions some people may have and removes contradictory information.”

“Facebook at Mozcon – Alex” by Thos003 is marked with CC BY 2.0.