Who’s been naughty?~ctm
Science Alert is upset
Over the past two weeks, something unprecedented has happened on ScienceAlert’s Facebook page. And we need to talk about it.
As members of the Covering Climate Now initiative, we recently strengthened our coverage of climate change. We also proudly supported the Global Climate Strike on 20 September 2019, a day that saw over four million people staging protests around the world, demanding climate action as signs of environmental breakdown rapidly encompass our little blue marble.
OMG! We are all Russian Bots!
Our readers have expressed surprise at just how many climate change deniers appear to be following us. Lately, every time we post a climate news article on Facebook, with astonishing speed and ferocity the comment section becomes a hot-pot of climate denialism.
Posts will receive hundreds of comments in a short amount of time, often in wild disproportion to the actual reach of the post, or the readership of the article itself. Those metrics are a clear sign the engagement is not organic, but is coming from a targeted source.
They lurk in those dark corners…other there! And they’re funded! yeah that’s the ticket…funded!
We don’t know where these climate trolls roost. Maybe they come from self-organizing grassroots groups with secret Facebook pages. Perhaps the fact they all use the same language and the same memes is indicative of receiving talking points and funding from the fossil fuel industry. Perhaps.
What matters is that ScienceAlert’s Facebook page is being targeted, and we are taking action.
Please Stepford children, follow these instructions.
How you engage in our comment section on Facebook is crucial. When you see one of our posts about climate news, there will inevitably be climate troll comments underneath it. They will post inflammatory, false statements. Offensive memes. They are trying to upset you.
Do not let them. When you see a climate troll comment, please respond by simply tagging ScienceAlert, so our moderators can deal with it as soon as they’re able.
We can’t stress that enough: do not engage.
HT/ozspeaksup
via Watts Up With That?
September 28, 2019 at 12:00PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 