Climate scientists flee Twitter as hostility surges
www.france24.com
Scientists suffering insults and mass-spam are abandoning Twitter for alternative social networks as hostile climate-change denialism surges on the platform following Elon Musk's takeover.

EDIT: I didn’t notice in the original post, the article is from 2023

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19707239

Researchers have documented an explosion of hate and misinformation on Twitter since the Tesla billionaire took over in October 2022 – and now experts say communicating about climate science on the social network on which many of them rely is getting harder.

Policies aimed at curbing the deadly effects of climate change are accelerating, prompting a rise in what experts identify as organised resistance by opponents of climate reform.

Peter Gleick, a climate and water specialist with nearly 99,000 followers, announced on May 21 he would no longer post on the platform because it was amplifying racism and sexism.

While he is accustomed to “offensive, personal, ad hominem attacks, up to and including direct physical threats”, he told AFP, “in the past few months, since the takeover and changes at Twitter, the amount, vituperativeness, and intensity of abuse has skyrocketed”.

  • Dave field@lemmy.worldEnglish
    54·
    3 months ago

    We should as a community ensure Twitter\X lives forever…

    If only as a place to keep certain social media users “entertained”

    In all seriousness it does concern me how often I see such a wide variety of news agencies quote Twitter considering the amount of hate that goes on there

    • xenoclast@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      3 months ago

      The irony of climate scientists ignoring a problem and waiting until it’s far to late to do something is honestly pretty funny…

      At this point it’s wholly on you if you’re still using twitter.

      You’d think smart people like science nerds would have left the Nazi bar ages ago.

    • ansiz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      3 months ago

      It’s because the news media industry as a whole has stuck with Twitter as their primary social media site. It’s kinda hilarious how much they seem to like it and how much time they spend there.

    • PhAzE@lemmy.caEnglish
      10·
      3 months ago

      That’s dangerous. Look at what Fox is doing, as an entertainment company, to US politics across the country.