Study Finds Facebook Labels 50% of Climate Misinformation

Eighteen months after Facebook committed to limiting the spread of misinformation, new research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate has found far too much of it, especially on climate issues, still getting through to users' feeds. In the summer of 2020, Facebook said it would add labels "on the worst of the worst misinformation." In May of 2021, Facebook said it would add labels to posts about climate change. In its study, the Center looked at popular Facebook posts from a group of preselected publishers which had previously written articles around climate change denial—50.5% of the posts in the sample contained no information labels, while generating 541,877 Facebook interactions. Only articles that matched the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) definition of climate misinformation were included in the study. “Advertisers have woken up to the problems of brand safety,” said Harriet Kingaby, CAN’s co-chair. “It’s no longer about avoiding risk. It’s about leadership. It’s about how brands choose to spend their advertising is an extension of their brand values.” In a statement to Adweek, Facebook spokesperson Kevin McAlister said the research was not necessarily a fair reflection of the platform's efforts on climate misinformation. "When [a network of independent fact checkers] rate this content as false, we add a warning label and reduce its distribution so fewer people see it," McAlister said. "During the time frame of this report, we hadn’t completely rolled out our labeling program, which very likely impacted the results." Are platforms brand safe environments? The research comes as brands are increasingly skeptical of platforms’ brand safety efforts and are more willing to hold them accountable. In November, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), whose members include some of the biggest advertisers, released its second report evaluating how well eight platforms, including Facebook, are enforcing their policies around certain brand safety standards. GARM said its next volume would include a separate category for misinformation, including around climate change. In November 2021, during the United Nations Climate Change Conference, CAN sent an open letter to the CEOs of the social platforms demanding a plan to eliminate climate misinformation. Facebook does have several tools allowing brands to control where their ads appear on pages. But Facebook is still expanding measures to give brands greater control of where their ads appear in the News Feed, Facebook’s main landing page. “There remain pockets where control is not always available,” said Stevan Randjelovic, director of brand safety and digital risk for the EMEA region at GroupM. CAN's Kingaby said, for brands working on sustainability plans, it can be harmful for their ads to show up next to climate misinformation on Facebook: “They may be saying one thing … but their ads are in spaces where that’s contradicted." From labeling misinformation to eliminating it More consistently labeling climate misinformation is a start, but it won’t solve all of Facebook’s accuracy woes, acknowledges the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s CEO Imran Ahmed. “We call 'labeling' sticking plaster on a gaping wound [that is the] torrent of misinformation,” said Ahmed. “They apply that sticking plaster with closed eyes.” Google took a stronger stand with a policy released in October, prohibiting the monetization of content and ads with climate misinformation. Nandini Jammi, co-founder of ad tech watchdog Check My Ads Institute, said Facebook’s policy could focus on removing misinformation instead of just labeling it. She proposed a three-strike policy for groups, pages or individuals that spread misinformation. While most marketers won't be giving up on Facebook, Randjelovic said they can choose suitable environments for advertising. “Every advertiser makes a choice for themselves. It is absolutely their choice if they want to go to a high-, medium- or low-risk environment,” Randjelovic said. “Advertisers can also use their standing power to push platforms to implement controls.” Platforms Foment Climate Misinformation, Creating a Thorny Landscape for Brands

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Study Finds Facebook Labels Climate Misinformation Just Half the Time

Inconsistent labeling leaves marketers in the dark

Catherine Perloff

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Catherine Perloff