The first major digital platform to introduce a comprehensive misinformation policy designed to combat false and misleading claims around climate change isPinterest. According to the company's newly updated misinformation guidelines, they will now be able to remove content that denies the existence of impacts of climate change, denies human influence on climate change and denies climate change is backed by scientific consensus.
It will remove false and misleading content about climate change solutions that contradict scientific consensus, content that misrepresents scientific data either by omission or cherry-picking in order to erode trust in climate science and experts, and harmful and misleading content about public safety emergencies including natural disasters and extreme weather events.
The company noted that the new Community guidelines apply to ads as well. The guidelines for advertising on the site have been updated to prohibit ads about climate change and conspiracy theories.
Pinterest believes in cultivating a space that is trustworthy for those using its platform. This bold move is an expansion of our broader misinformation guidelines, which we first developed in 2017: to address public health misinformation, and have since updated to address new and emerging issues as they come to the forefront. The expanded climate misinformation policy is yet another step in the fight against misinformation and creates a safe space online, according to Sarah Bromma, the head of Policy.
The company relied on the Climate Disinformation Coalition and the Conscious Advertising Network to help develop and inform its new policy decisions.
The increase in user searches for topics related to the environment is what led to the change. Over the past year, searches for zero waste tips increased by 6x and searches for recycled clothes increased by 4x.
To encourage further inspiration around green lifestyles,Pinterest will launch a creator series led by creators from the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia and India, which will focus on things like thrifting tips. Project Drawdown and Potential Energy Coalition are two organizations that will be offered ad credits.
Increased awareness of businesses' role in addressing climate change led to the new policy. The SEC has proposed new rules that would require companies to report how their operations impact the climate and the formation of carbon emissions. Major tech companies were asked for more information on climate change disclosures. Among those asked for more detail were large tech companies. A climate report released by the U.N encouraged the adoption of renewable energy sources and other measures to limit climate change impacts.
Today's update is not the first time that Pinterest has changed its guidelines to better align with the scientific community. Ahead of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting anti-vax sentiment that later emerged,Pinterest said it would limit vaccine-related search results to authoritative sources, including leading public health organizations such as the World Health Organization. It had blocked anti-vaccine content in the past. It launched authoritative search results for COVID-19 in 2020.
In order to make its network a more positive place, pinsy has taken other, proactive measures. In 2016 it banned ads for sensitive content, including culturally appropriated and inappropriate costumes. It stopped running political ads in the last year.
Updating a content policy and actually enforcing it are two different things.
According to the company, it will use a variety of methods to find and take action on the ads that violate its new climate change policy. It says that the safety team will review user reports of violating content, like those submitted through the dedicated feature for flagging misinformation.
Organizations working on climate action have praised the move.
Climate misinformation on digital platforms is a serious threat to the public support needed to solve the climate crisis. He said that they encourage others to take note of the efforts to reduce climate change misinformation.
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