<div dir="ltr">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...<div><div><br></div><div>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:</div><div><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/02/age-of-surveillance-capitalism-shoshana-zuboff-review">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/02/age-of-surveillance-capitalism-shoshana-zuboff-review</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>Thus the following post from April 7, 2020 on Realclimate.org was a surprise... </div><div><br></div><div>"I think we need to let YouTube hear that this actually is a big problem" the post quoted below indicates?  </div><div><div> </div></div><div>YouTube's "profit above truth" dominated operatives already know this, of course.</div><div><br></div><div>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?</div><div>-------------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="box-sizing:inherit;line-height:1em;margin:20px 0px"><div style="font-size:small;font-weight:400">Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div><div style="font-size:small;font-weight:400">***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2000 through life plus 70 years, Ted Moffett.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the <a href="http://vision2020.moscow.com/" target="_blank">Vision2020.Moscow.com</a> forum without the express written permission of the author.*****</div></h1></div><div><div><h3 class="gmail-storytitle" id="gmail-post-23068" style="border-bottom:1px dotted rgb(238,238,238);font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif;margin:0px;color:rgb(0,0,0)">A problem with YouTube</h3></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2020/04/a-problem-with-youtube/#comments">http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2020/04/a-problem-with-youtube/#comments</a><br></div><div><br></div><div><p dir="ltr" style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:1.656;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">I was aware that some colleagues</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> 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 <span id="gmail-cite_ITEM-23068-1" name="citation"><a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2020/04/a-problem-with-youtube/#ITEM-23068-1" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)">(Hotez, 2020)</a></span>, and the science community has a common interest in preserving the confidence in science. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:1.656;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:1.656;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(34,34,34);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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. </span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">According to a </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/youtube-to-suppress-content-spreading-coronavirus-5g-conspiracy-theory" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;color:rgb(17,85,204);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">report in the Guardian</span></a><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">, YouTube has acted on conspiracy theories about 5G and corona, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/07/whatsapp-to-impose-new-limit-on-forwarding-to-fight-fake-news" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)">WhatsApp has allegedly</a> in made</span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;white-space:pre-wrap"> changes to limit the spread of conspiracy theories. Hopefully, YouTube will also listen when it comes to climate change. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)">By spreading lies, bullshit, and falsehoods, the social platforms steal the truth from us.</p><h2 style="border-bottom:1px dotted rgb(204,204,204);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:15.2px;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman",Times,serif;letter-spacing:0.2em;margin:15px 0px 2px;padding-bottom:2px;color:rgb(0,0,0)">References</h2><ol style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,"Lucida Grande",sans-serif;font-size:medium"><li style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;letter-spacing:0px"><a name="ITEM-23068-0" style="color:rgb(102,170,85)"></a>S. van der Linden, A. Leiserowitz, S. Rosenthal, and E. Maibach, "Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change", <i>Global Challenges</i>, vol. 1, pp. 1600008, 2017. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201600008" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)">http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201600008</a></li><li style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14.4px;line-height:18px;letter-spacing:0px"><a name="ITEM-23068-1" style="color:rgb(102,170,85)"></a>P.J. Hotez, "Combating antiscience: Are we preparing for the 2020s?", <i>PLOS Biology</i>, vol. 18, pp. e3000683, 2020. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000683" style="color:rgb(51,85,34)">http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000683</a></li></ol></div></div></div></div>