Pop quiz, faithful Roundup readers! Here are two quotes. One is from a past Denier Roundup post, and the other is from UN Secretary-General António Guterres at a Monday press briefing. Can you guess which is which?
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"Digital platforms are being misused to subvert science and spread disinformation and hate to billions of people."
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"Flaws in online spaces are exploited by fossil fuel companies, those with vested interests, and hostile actors who see climate as another axis to spread distrust, drive division, and weaken democratic processes in the EU and around the world."
The first is from the UN Secretary-General, who announced a new UN Policy Brief laying out the "common agenda" on hate speech and mis- and disinformation, the three overlapping threats to "information integrity" in the digital public square.
The second is our summary of some expert advice given to the EU back in March, and as you can see, the UN is clearly doing its homework, with Guterres calling disinformation a "clear and present global threat" which "demands clear and coordinated global action."
Okay, round two, hot shot! Which is the UN's description of Twitter's #ClimateScam, and which is ours?
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"On Twitter, uses of the hashtag #climatescam shot up from fewer than 2,700 a month in the first half of 2022 to 80,000 in July and 199,000 in January 2023."
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"From October 2021 to July 19, 2022, the Twitter hashtag #ClimateScam was basically dead, seeing essentially zero tweets. Then, as if someone flipped a switch to turn it on, usage jumped, with over 1,000 posts a day in the months that followed."
This one's probably a bit easier, as the UN is generally not going to use phrases like "basically dead" in their official policy documents. But to be fair, the report from the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition that we were citing was more formal: "In July 2022 the hashtag #ClimateScam suddenly spiked on Twitter, and by December had accrued over 362k mentions (including retweets) from 91k unique users."
Now, round three, for all the marbles! Which one of these quotes is from the UN, and which is yours truly?
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“Coordinated campaigns are seeking to deny, minimize or distract from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientific consensus and derail urgent action to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.”
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“A small but vocal minority of climate science denialists continue to reject the consensus position and command an outsized presence on some digital platforms.”
Trick question! They're both from the UN policy brief!
Seriously, though, the brief is great and well worth reading, as it addresses issues beyond just climate. For example, it explains that "In a 2022 survey, 70 percent of United Nations peacekeepers said mis- and disinformation were having a severe, critical or moderate impact on their work, while 75 per cent said that they were having an impact on their safety and security. Mis- and disinformation can also be used to target humanitarian actors and hamper life-saving operations in conflict areas."
They also have a whole page exclaiming how mis- and disinformation are thwarting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, before laying out a policy agenda to address the information integrity crisis.
And you should definitely go check out those recommendations, though if you're a regular reader here, they might sound familiar!