Twitter bans ‘climate denialism’ in ads ahead of Musk takeover

by Samantha Flom

Photo: Alamy

Twitter has announced that it will begin censoring advertisements that contradict the “scientific consensus” on climate change.

The company’s new “climate-forward” approach to advertisements was revealed in an Earth Day blog post on Friday.

“Misleading advertisements on Twitter that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited, in line with our inappropriate content policy,” the company’s sustainability team announced. “We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetized on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis.”

The team added that Twitter’s enforcement of the new policy would be informed by “authoritative sources” but only listed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as one of those sources.

Per the Associated Press, the announcement came just hours before the European Union solidified a deal requiring Big Tech companies to strictly police their platforms for “hate speech” and “disinformation.” The AP also noted that there is already a similar policy at Google. 

Notably, last April, Project Veritas released an undercover video in which a CNN staffer admitted that next on the news network’s agenda was pushing “climate change awareness” following Trump’s ousting from the White House.

There is currently no evidence to suggest that the new policy changes at Twitter and in the EU are related to CNN’s stated agenda. However, in the past, messaging from Big Tech companies, mainstream media outlets, and left-leaning government officials have often followed the same narrative. 

For instance, New York Post noted how, before the 2020 election, Big Tech, the mainstream media, and Democrat officials all worked in tandem to discredit the outlet’s exposé on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

However, now that Elon Musk will become the new owner of Twitter, the social media company may have to put its “climate denialism” policy on the backburner.

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