Facebook allows false information about climate through advertising

Think tanks have accused Facebook of allowing major oil companies to use the platform to promote fossil fuels.

According to a new study [pdf] According to the climate-focused think tank InfluenceMap, fossil fuel companies and lobby groups use Facebook to advertise oil and gas as part of their climate change solution, not part of the problem. Posts, delaying the disappearance of fossil fuel use.

Twenty-five oil and gas businesses, including ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute (API), spent about $ 9.5 million on Facebook in 2020, according to an ImpactMap study. They posted at least 25,247 fossil fuel ads on Facebook’s US platform. More than 431 million times.

Exxon alone spent $ 5 million on such ads, followed by the American Petroleum Institute ($ 2.7 million) and OneAlaska ($ 329,680).

According to the analysis, more than 6,700 ads on Facebook last year advertised the claim that natural gas is a green or low-carbon fuel, despite a survey by an intergovernmental panel on climate change.

Exxon, in particular, frequently used Facebook ads to spread the claim that continued use of oil is important to ensure that the United States does not depend on other countries for energy demand.

Advertising in the oil industry often downplayed the actual impact of the sector and exaggerated the potential negative impact of the transition to renewable energy on the economy and communities.

The report also observed a surge in Facebook advertising spending in July 2020, the day after then-presidential candidate Joe Biden announced a $ 2 trillion climate program. Oil company spending remained high until the end of the election four months later.

Biden’s proposal called for a significant reduction in fossil fuel consumption to combat the climate crisis.

The ImpactMap report also accuses Facebook of improperly implementing its advertising policy, but states that it has not kept pace with the urgent need for climate change.

“If Facebook is serious about tackling climate change, it needs to rethink whether it’s willing to continue spending money on fossil fuel companies,” the report said.

“These platforms that have a great deal of power in the political arena need to be transparent about how they are used to influence the climate change debate,” he added.

In a statement CNNExxon said the allegations made in the report were “intentionally misleading and completely unprofitable.”

The API claimed that “work to inform the debate” (fossil fuel promotion) was validated by government and independent research.

A Facebook spokeswoman emphasized: CNN Two mistakes can do the right thing, protesting that fossil fuel ads aren’t limited to social media:

“Such ads run on many platforms, including television networks such as: CNN, Facebook is even more transparent by requiring it to be publicly available in its ad library for up to seven years after it’s published, “a Facebook spokeswoman added.