If you've ever suspected that social media influencers are actually changing peoples' minds, your suspicions have now been confirmed.
New research from nonprofit Global Witness has found that influencers are changing public opinion and spreading misinformation, particularly when it comes to the changing climate and global heating.
"Climate misinformation and disinformation spread unchecked on TikTok during [global climate summit] COP29, mostly in user comments on videos," Inside Climate News reported. "The users they identified denied man-made global warming and rebuked efforts to combat it, claiming that climate change is a 'lie' or 'hoax.'"
Far from it, numerous studies from many sources have linked human actions — namely, the significant burning of dirty energy in areas such as manufacturing and transportation — to the stratospheric rise in global temperatures. In turn, these warming temperatures have created a harmful effect called the greenhouse effect, which has resulted in everything from more severe weather events to a concerning loss of biodiversity.
Considering the massive presence of social media in society, many are concerned that the deliberate spreading of misinformation is a major threat to making progress in reducing pollution — particularly since brands recognize this as an opportunity.
Think Landscape reported that Big Oil is using influencers to slyly change peoples' minds and spread misinformation about the harms of their dirty fuels. It cited research from Harvard, which found that these distracting techniques — be it greenwashing or sportswashing, where a brand allies itself with misleading imagery and keywords — are aimed to distract from the core of the companies' missions.
In a similarly concerning pattern, Inside Climate News reported that after Hurricanes Helen and Milton wreaked havoc this past fall, many social media users circulated bogus theories that the government created the storms using so-called 'weather machines,' which do not exist.
James Marshall Shepherd, a former NASA weather scientist at the University of Georgia, told Yale Environment 360, "In the past, the harassment was over in a fringe element." But now, he says, "In this last episode, it was [a] bit more mainstream."
Similar debunked conspiracies included the devastating Maui wildfires being started by TV personality Oprah Winfrey as a land grab bid, NPR reported.
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Making an effort to fact-check and read closely on seemingly outlandish claims can prevent this troubling misinformation pattern from continuing — something that will benefit everybody on Earth.
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