TikTok is failing to live up to its commitment to fight climate misinformation on the social media platform.
Though the company bans climate denial posts, it has not maintained the same scrutiny for comments posted on its videos.
As Global Witness reported, TikTok videos about the United Nations' COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, revealed many comments about climate crisis denial in major news organizations' posts. This disturbing oversight signals that TikTok's moderation system is inadequate in preventing false and misleading information leaks to the public.
Global Witness reported 20 climate denial comments to TikTok regarding claims that climate change isn't real and is a hoax unrelated to human activity. TikTok only removed one of the reported comments while responding that the other comments did not violate community guidelines.
This media shortcoming is troubling because public trust suffers when popular platforms refuse to acknowledge and remove false and misleading information. Biased and diluted climate coverage undermines the urgency of addressing our changing climate's role in perpetuating extreme weather events and natural disasters.
Many people rely on social media outlets such as TikTok to get their news rather than reading traditional sources. When that filtered news is tainted with misinformation, people's beliefs are swayed based on lies and hidden agendas.
This issue is especially relevant on TikTok, where an estimated 77% of users read video comments.
COP29 was a highly publicized climate-focused event that many TikTok users were interested in learning about because of its global relevance and ambitious goals for green energy transition initiatives.
One TikTok content moderation employee revealed the platform has been increasing its reliance on outsourced and automated comment moderation. Without an experienced human touch, more hate speech and false information can reach viewers.
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Alternatively, responsible media approaches include portraying how the changing climate is relevant to people's daily lives and rejecting money and affiliations from the dirty energy industry.
"Automated moderation should be a tool used by experienced human moderators, not as a replacement," John Chadfield, national officer for tech for The Communication Workers Union, said.
"Sad story for the future," one social media user commented on Global Witness' post to X, formerly known as Twitter. "Misleading the youth of the world. Ticking and spreading self-hate and illusion."
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