Facebook is starting a climate information centre to fight fake news. The social medium is doing so at a time when criticism for allowing untruths about the wildfires in the western United States is growing.
The information centre must provide users with scientific information about the climate. The service will look the same as the information centres that Facebook previously launched about the coronavirus and about the US elections.
For now, it is only accessible in the US, Germany, France, and the UK. It is plausible that the Netherlands will follow suit in the future, but it has not yet been confirmed.
“The scientific climate information centre is a place on Facebook where you can find factual sources from the most important climate organizations and which steps people can take in their lives to combat climate change,” said the social medium.
Facebook has been accused of allowing false information about climate change due to opinion articles not falling under the social medium’s fact-checking system. For example, the company continues to allow inaccuracies about the climate that are called out by politicians.
“Speeches by politicians are always full of exaggeration and the selective use of data,” says Facebook policymaker Nick Clegg.
