Letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Facebook, Inc. - Warren, Carper, Whitehouse, Schatz Call on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook to Stop the Deliberate Spread of Climate Disinformation on the Company's Social Media Platforms

Letter

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg:

We write to you about reports that Facebook has created fact-checking exemptions for people and organizations who spread disinformation about the climate crisis on its social media platform. Your company has reportedly "decided to allow its staffers to overrule the climate scientists and make any climate disinformation ineligible for fact-checking by deeming it "opinion.'" But the climate crisis and environmental degradation are not matters of opinion. They are existential threats that hurt communities and economies throughout the world -- including and especially Black communities and other communities of color --and will continue to do so. It is imperative that your company reverse course and take immediate steps to combat the spread of climate disinformation on its social media platforms.

Given Facebook's long and troubling history with disinformation, it is deeply concerning that Facebook has now determined that climate disinformation is reportedly "immuneto fact-checking." Not only has Facebook permitted the spread of disinformation about U.S. elections and the ongoing novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but reports have also documented that "far-right, fringe and conspiratorial Facebook pages were enjoying unusual success by spreading content that misdirected blame away from climate change." Notably, since Facebook issued a blog post on its efforts to combat misinformation on Facebook in April 2017, disinformation campaigns on the platform have continued and expanded, often with state-sponsored support.

Facebook's Climate Denial Designations and Relationship with Climate Denying Organizations

As part of Facebook's fact-checking process, the company "rel[ies] on independent factcheckers to identify and review potential misinformation, which enables [it] to take action." News reports last month documented Facebook's intervention to overturn the decisions by climate scientists working as outside approved Facebook fact checkers. The researchers flagged misleading climate posts "based on cherry-picked information to mislead readers into thinking climate science models are wrong about global warming" by a group called the CO2 Coalition, which has falsely claimed that "extreme weather events in recent years have not happened more often or with greater intensity" and that reports of environmental degradation are "myths designed to terrify people into accepting harmful policies," as false. Facebook, however, removed notices that these posts contained false information by deeming them to be "opinion," which then would not be labeled as false "even if they contain information the fact checkers determined was inaccurate," creating a massive loophole in Facebook's fact-checking process, as "false" content is removed or has its distribution reduced. These determinations are leading climate denying organizations to express their intentions "to exploit this loophole to spread climate misinformation" on your platform.

Allowing the spread of climate disinformation on Facebook is wholly inconsistent with your company's June 2020 claims that it is "committed to fighting the spread of false news on Facebook and Instagram" -- and represents another unfortunate example of Facebook's refusal to fully combat the deliberate spread of misinformation.

For example, in October 2019, as Facebook worked to renew its relationship with news outlets, the company included Breitbart, "a far-right website known for misinformation," in those efforts. You publicly defended the inclusion of Breitbart with news outlets, arguing that it was important "to include a breadth of content to make sure all different topics can be covered." But Breitbart has knowingly and deliberately spread misinformation about the climate crisis. Scientific reviews of a 2019 Breitbart post making false claims about human impacts on climate change demonstrate "that it builds on a fallacious reasoning" and that "the content of the article does not support [its] claim." Similarly, in 2016, the Weather Company issued a press release responding to Breitbart's misuse of a Weather Company video clip, describing the Breitbart piece as "a prime example of cherry picking, or pulling a single item out of context to build a misleading case" and stating that "this topic is too important to get wrong."

Dangerous Consequences of Amplifying Climate Denial on Social Media Platforms

The climate crisis is too important to allow blatant lies to spread on social media without consequence. Without action to address the crisis, the risks from climate change will continue to grow for political and financial systems around the world. The 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that human activities have already caused about 1 degree Celsius of global warming above pre-industrial levels and that global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the coming decades, if climate change continues at the current rate. The report found that on the world's current path, global temperatures are set to rise as much as 3.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100 and that drastic action is necessary in order to prevent the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis, including significant changes to global food, energy, water, and security systems.

The effects of the current trend of the climate crisis also pose a major threat to our domestic economy. In 2018, the Fourth National Climate Assessment, issued by 13 federal agencies, found that unless there is significant action to address the climate crisis, as much as 10 percent of the American economy, or more than double the losses of the Great Recession, will be lost by the end of the century. Research shows that the increasingly rising global temperatures and its effects will "universally hurt worker health and productivity" and "increasingly disrupt and damage critical infrastructure and property." The devastation caused by the climate crisis will also be disproportionately felt by communities of color, low-income communities, and other frontline communities that have already withstood the worst environmental injustices. These communities and their local economies do not have the opportunity to ignore or delay action on the climate crisis, and these communities especially do not have the opportunity to engage in a misleading debate as to whether the crisis they are facing is even real, simply because your company is failing to stop disinformation from spreading.

You have stated that, "[s]topping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before it's too late." Without action to stop the spread of climate disinformation, those words remain hollow.

Climate denialism, particularly if amplified on social media channels such as Facebook and its subsidiaries, puts action on climate change at risk. Research has found that the "concerted effort to discredit the scientific consensus over man-made global warming has been continuing" and "shows no sign of weakening," with findings that climate deniers "have been remarkably successful in confusing public opinion and delaying decisive action" and that they "receive considerable media attention and enjoy access to key Washington power brokers." Fossil fuel companies and other large corporations spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to lobby against robust climate action. The Trump administration has reportedly worked to embed climate denial in scientific research. Amidst these efforts to undermine the important work to combat climate change, Facebook's assertions that "[w]e don't have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true" troublingly amplifies climate denialism at the expense of communities and economies that will continue to be ravaged by the climate crisis. If Facebook is truly "committed to fighting the spread of false news on Facebook and Instagram," the company must immediately acknowledge in its fact-checking process that the climate crisis is not a matter of opinion and act to close loopholes that allow climate disinformation to spread on its platform.

Questions

In order to ensure that Facebook is taking measures to truly prevent the spread of climate disinformation, we ask that you answer the following questions by Friday, July 31, 2020:

1. A press report from June 2020 indicated that Facebook's fact-checking process allowed climate denial to be categorized as "opinion," creating a loophole in its fact-checking process.
a. Is this report correct?
b. If so, how was the decision made to categorize false information about climate change as "opinion," and who was involved in this decision?
i. Please provide a list of each issue that has been categorized as "opinion." For each such issue, please indicate the process by which the categorization was made, including the name and affiliation of any entity requesting that such a categorization be made and the manner in
which Facebook evaluated the request.
c. Do you believe that allowing false information on the climate crisis to spread unchallenged on your platform provides weight to efforts to deny climate science?
d. What other scientific issues are treated in this fashion by Facebook?

2. In April 2017, Facebook stated: "False news is harmful to our community, it makes the world less informed, and it erodes trust. It's not a new phenomenon, and all of us -- tech companies, media companies, newsrooms, teachers -- have a responsibility to do our part in addressing it."
a. Is the spread of false information on the climate crisis included in Facebook's
understanding of false news?

3. In March 2019, Facebook announced steps to "tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic."38 In Facebook's announcement, the company stated: "We will reduce the ranking of groups and Pages that spread misinformation about vaccinations in News Feed and Search." It also stated that "[w]hen we find ads that include misinformation about vaccinations, we will reject them;" and "[w]e are exploring ways to share educational information about vaccines when people come across misinformation on this topic," among other measures.
a. Please provide information on how Facebook reached its decision to tackle vaccine disinformation on its social media platforms.
i. Please explain how disinformation on vaccination differs from the disinformation on the climate crisis, which Facebook has permitted by designating false information as "opinion."
b. Has Facebook considered taking similar measures to prevent the spread of climate disinformation on its social media platforms? If so, please provide additional information.

4. In June 2020, in reference to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook announced measures to support "the global public health community's work to keep people safe and informed during the coronavirus public health crisis." The company's announcement stated that it would better connect "people to credible information," combat "COVID-19 misinformation across our apps," and prohibit "exploitative tactics in ads," among other actions.
a. Please provide information on how Facebook reached its decision to tackle COVID-19 disinformation on its social media platforms.
i. Please explain how disinformation on COVID-19 differs from the disinformation on the climate crisis, which Facebook has permitted by designating false information as "opinion."
b. Has Facebook considered taking similar measures to prevent the spread of climate disinformation on its social media platforms? If so, please provide additional information.

5. As announced in October 2019, Facebook has included the far-right website Breitbart, "a far-right website known for misinformation,"44 alongside news outlets in its news section.
a. Please explain why this website was included, particularly given its long history of climate denial and spread of disinformation on the climate crisis.
b. Please provide a list of news outlets and other organizations included in Facebook's news section.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

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