[Vision2020] Climate Science on YouTube: Monetizing Disinformation?

Ted Moffett starbliss at gmail.com
Fri Apr 24 19:19:47 PDT 2020


The grave problem of social media monetizing disinformation (number of
clicks and eyeballs to advertise to is all that matters, not facts or
Truth), a menace on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter et. al. is undermining our
democracy, and hindering public science based understanding of numerous
problems, anthropogenic global warming among them...

This is a well known development that anyone not living in a cave (and even
some of them know!) is or should be aware of:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/02/age-of-surveillance-capitalism-shoshana-zuboff-review

Thus the following post from April 7, 2020 on Realclimate.org was a
surprise...

"I think we need to let YouTube hear that this actually is a big problem"
the post quoted below indicates?

YouTube's "profit above truth" dominated operatives already know this, of
course.

And climate scientists should already know that the climate science deniers
are using social media to push their propaganda, thus credible professional
climate scientists who use social media will have their content monetized
for disinformation?
-------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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A problem with YouTube

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2020/04/a-problem-with-youtube/#comments

I was aware that some colleagues have complained that serious climate
information channels face increasing obstacles from YouTube while denial
sites are thriving. There are also similar concerns about organised
“anti-science movements” in other disciplines such as vaccination (Hotez,
2020)
<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2020/04/a-problem-with-youtube/#ITEM-23068-1>,
and the science community has a common interest in preserving the
confidence in science.



Both the increasing obstacles on serious material and the promotion of
intellectual rubbish are problematic, and I think we need to let YouTube
hear that this actually is a big problem that can easily be fixed. According
to a report in the Guardian
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/youtube-to-suppress-content-spreading-coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory>,
YouTube has acted on conspiracy theories about 5G and corona, and WhatsApp
has allegedly
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/07/whatsapp-to-impose-new-limit-on-forwarding-to-fight-fake-news>
in made changes to limit the spread of conspiracy theories. Hopefully,
YouTube will also listen when it comes to climate change.

By spreading lies, bullshit, and falsehoods, the social platforms steal the
truth from us.
References

   1. S. van der Linden, A. Leiserowitz, S. Rosenthal, and E. Maibach,
   "Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate
Change", *Global
   Challenges*, vol. 1, pp. 1600008, 2017.
   http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201600008
   2. P.J. Hotez, "Combating antiscience: Are we preparing for the
2020s?", *PLOS
   Biology*, vol. 18, pp. e3000683, 2020.
   http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000683
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