Climate scientists flee Twitter, allege hostile climate change denialism has surged on platform

Scientistssuffering insults and mass-spam are abandoningTwitterfor alternative social networks as hostileclimate-change denialismsurgeson the platform following Elon Musk's takeover.

Researchers have documented an explosion of hate and misinformation onTwitter since the billionaire Tesla owner took over in October 2022 — and now experts say communicating aboutclimatescience on the social network on which many of them rely is getting harder.

Policies aimed at curbing the deadly effects ofclimatechange are accelerating, prompting a rise in what experts identify as organised resistance by opponents ofclimatereform.

Peter Gleick, aclimateand water specialist with nearly 99,000 followers, announced on May 21 he would no longer post on the platform because it was amplifying racism and sexism.

While he is accustomed to "offensive, personal, ad hominem attacks, up to and including direct physical threats", he told AFP, "in the past few months, since the takeover and changes atTwitter, the amount, vituperativeness, and intensity of abuse has skyrocketed".

Climatetweets decline

Robert Rohde, a physicist and lead scientist at the non-profit environmental data analysis group Berkeley Earth, analysed activity on hundreds of accounts of widely followed specialists posting aboutclimatescience before and after the takeover.

He foundclimatescientists' tweets were losing impact. The average number of likes they received was down 38 per cent and average retweets fell 40 per cent.

Twitterhas not commented directly about what changes it has made to the algorithms that drive traffic and visibility.

Contacted at its email address for comment, its press department returned its now customary reply, an automated email with a "poop" emoji.

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But in a tweet seen as an acknowledgement of a deliberate change, Musk wrote in January: "People on the right should see more 'left-wing' stuff and people on the left should see more 'right-wing' stuff. But you can just block it if you want to stay in an echo chamber."

Climatedenial bots

In another analysis, prominent climatologist Katharine Hayhoe monitored responses to a tweet onclimatechange which she published twice, as an experiment, on separate dates before and after the takeover.

She counted the hostile comments and examined them for signs that they came from bots -– automated accounts that researchers say are pushing mass misinformation.

Inauthentic accounts can be identified by analysis tools such as Bot Sentinel.

Replies from apparent trolls or bots increased 15 to 30 times over a two-month period compared to the previous two years, Hayhoe tweeted in January 2023.

"Before October, my account was growing steadily at a rate of at least several thousand new followers a month. Since then, it has not changed," she told AFP.

ScientistsleavingTwitter

Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, said he was moving most of hisclimatecommunication to Substack, a newsletter platform.

"Climatecommunications onTwitterare less useful (now) given that I can see that my tweets are getting less engagement," he said.

"In response to almost any tweet concerningclimatechange, I find my notifications inundated with replies from verified accounts making misleading or misguided claims."

Others have abandonedTwitteraltogether.

Hayhoe said that of aTwitterlist of 3,000climatescientiststhat she keeps, 100 disappeared after the takeover.

Glaciologist Ruth Mottram had more than 10,000 followers onTwitterbut left in February and joined an alternativescientists' forum powered by Mastodon -– a crowdfunded, decentralised grouping of social networks founded in 2016.

"It's really been a revelation in many ways. It's a much quieter and more thoughtful platform," she told AFP.

"On Mastodon, I haven't had any abuse at all or even people questioningclimate change. I think we'd become far too used to it onTwitter... I had blocked loads of accounts over on the birdsite (Twitter)," she said.

'Organised' campaign

Michael Mann, a prominentclimatescientist at the University of Pennsylvania and a regular target for abuse by deniers ofclimatechange, said he believed the rise in misinformation was "organised and orchestrated" by opponents ofclimatereforms.

"I've seen a huge rise in trolls and bots. Many target tweets of mine for attack," he said.

Mann's 2021 book "The NewClimateWar" documented action by oil producers to sowclimatedenialism on social media.

"The professional trolls manipulate the online environment with strategic posts that generate conflict and division, leading to a feeding frenzy," he told AFP.

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