The In recent years they have had to deal with the phenomenon of the diffusion of “fake news” related to different topics, from violence and political issues, to hoaxes about COVID-19. On this occasion, pinterest announced new measures to eliminate any type of false information related to climate change, becoming the first platform that decides to apply specific policies in relation to this matter.
The social network made the announcement official through its , explaining that “It is important to ensure that users find ideas from trusted sources, regardless of the type of inspiration they seek to discover on the platform, from how to cook and shop to how to build a house and live a more sustainable life”.
Pinterest, fake news and climate change
The new policies regarding false information spread about climate change make Pinterest the first social network to directly address this issue in its entirety and apply specific guidelines to counter its reach, including conspiracy theories, in content and ads.
Within these policies you can find measures such as the elimination of any content that denies the existence or the effects of climate change, in addition to human influence about climate change. It will also remove any false or misleading content about climate change solutions that is contrary to the established scientific consensus.
Likewise, it will censor that content that misrepresent scientific data, even by omission or manipulation; the publications you are looking for sow doubt on the word of the experts and climate science; and the content they spread misleading and false information that prove to be detrimental about public safety emergencies (natural disasters and extreme weather events).
“This bold move is an expansion of our broader disinformation guidelines, which we first developed in 2017 to address public health disinformation, and have since updated to address new and emerging issues,” expressed the Pinterest Policy Manager Sarah Bromma. “The expanded climate misinformation policy is another step in Pinterest’s journey to combat misinformation and create a safe space online”he added.
Pinterest vs. disinformation
This is not the first time that Pinterest has established specific guidelines to combat misinformation on its platform. In 2016, the social network established measures to prohibit the dissemination of advertisements with culturally inappropriate disguises, considering that some people might classify them as offensive.
Later, in 2017 Pinterest banned all content that spoke against vaccination and a year later, the platform stopped broadcasting political ads.
In 2021 the platform also removed and banned the posting of ads denigrating diversity in body types and that they promoted weight loss under that premise.
“We always want to make sure that our policies are forward-looking, that we’re not waiting until we’re invaded by some kind of harmful content and then we move on. At that point, it’s too late.” Bromma said.
Photo: pinterest
Stay informed of the most relevant news on our news channel
Facebook Comments
Disqus