iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 10/01/2025

London really is giving full Mary Poppins this morning.

View of London in the dawn light. The foreground is wreathed in a dusty blue-grey, fading into defiant orange where the sun rises behind the skyline.

View of London bathed in dawn light. The London Eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament are framed hazily in the skyline, with smoke billowing from chimneys in the foreground.

Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 19/11/2024

Thrilled this is proving useful! Sadly (or happily?), I am now addicted to finding every BlueSky account tackling climate mis-/disinfo, greenwashing, industry PR, Petrostate propaganda, covert lobbying, and other assorted malarkey. The list doubled yesterday evening, so do update your follows. 🧪

Distracted Boyfriend meme with "All Life and Work Commitments" being ignored in favour of "Making a Starter Pack"

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 18/11/2024

Since you're here, why not check out @caadcoalition.bsky.social's latest report? It covers attacks on renewables, wildfire conspiracies, industry ad campaigns + more! "Extreme Weather, Extreme Content: How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation in a World on the Brink" caad.info/analysis/rep...

Report cover titled "Extreme Weather, Extreme Content: How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation in a World on the Brink". Image shows flames from a forest fire, which as they rise become pixelated into binary numbers.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/11/2024

Sorry all, The Big Tired suddenly hit. It’s been a tough week (/month/year) and condensing a 63-page doc for BSky has defeated me. But fear not - to be continued tomorrow! Alternatively you can read the report, which includes an Exec Summary with key findings, here: caad.info/wp-content/u... 🧪 🔌💡

Front cover of report “Extreme Weather,
Extreme Content: How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation In a World on the Brink”. Image shows a wildfire where the flames gradually pixelate into binary numbers.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/11/2024

#4 ATTACKS ON RENEWABLES (2) They are also framed as a tool for social control, aligning with conspiracies like ‘Climate Lockdown’ and the ‘Great Reset’. Policy interventions on everything from diesel vehicles to heat pumps are labelled ‘totalitarian’ or anti-citizens' interests. shorturl.at/WUL82

Example of conspiratorial post likening climate action
to social control, shared by Peter Sweden on X (775k followers).

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/11/2024

#3 ATTACKS ON RENEWABLES (1). Disinfo targeting wind, solar, and EVs has been remarkably consistent over time. Debunked talking points continue to go viral, claiming such technologies are inefficient, unreliable, dangerous, prohibitively expensive, or do more harm than good to wildlife and nature.

Post on X by former Australian MP Craig Kelly (147.2k
followers) on 18 June 2024. Kelly’s bio on X states he was
“censored by Facebook and You Tube for truth telling”.

Post on X by Republican Congressman for Montana, Matt
Rosendale (71.7k followers), with nearly 1m views, 23k likes
and 9.7k retweets. In it he claims a wind turbine cannot function in cold weather and that coal, oil and natural gas are necessary "now and for the foreseeable future"

High-traction post from Wide Awake Media on X (578k followers), with 13k likes, 5.5k retweets and 578k views. The image shows an isolated accident in the Netherlands involving a wind turbine.

Post on X from Wall Street Silver (1.4m followers), an account dedicated to investments in precious metals which spreads conspiracy
theories about the World Economic Forum, as previous CAAD research has shown. Notably, the account benefits from ‘gold tick’ status, meaning it has been verified as an official organisation by X – a level up from the more common ‘blue tick’ available for X Premium subscribers.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/11/2024

#2 ACCESS DENIED We must track and dissect trends at scale, in real time, across contexts and languages. Yet data access is in dire straits. Much of the game-changing analysis from previous years - incl. our Deny, Deceive, Delay series - could not be produced now. www.isdglobal.org?s=deny+decei...

Meta: In August 2024, Meta deprecated its Crowdtangle (CT) tool, previously a gold standard for enabling research into a range of online harms. It has been replaced by the Meta Content Library (MCL), which by the assessment of Crowdtangle’s original creator has severely reduced functions and utility. From the experience of CAAD members and our networks, obtaining approval for access is both cumbersome and slow, with many researchers still awaiting a verdict on their application to date. These requests are also now assessed on a case-by-case basis, a major change from previous years.

X: Under the leadership of Elon Musk, X’s API has shifted to a tiered costing model that is prohibitively expensive for most research organisations. On Brandwatch, a common thirdparty tool for conducting analysis on X, research accounts are now limited to exporting 50k posts per day. While you can conduct analysis natively within the system, this prohibits other vital research with more sophisticated or bespoke tools, and severely hinders monitoring of
macro-level trends. Such constraints are further explained within the case studies of this report, showcasing where they had a direct impact on CAAD and its members’ work.

TikTok: TikTok has released an API that technically qualifies researchers to study public data on the platform. However, this access is currently limited to academic institutions located in the United States, European Union, UK or Switzerland, or not-for-profit and research entities only in the European Union. They are also beta-testing the service with
‘select researchers’ in the United States, European Union, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Applicants must provide a ‘clearly defined research proposal and show the access requested is needed for, and proportionate to, the purpose of that research’, as determined by the platform itself.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/11/2024

#1 EXTREME WEATHER, EXTREME CONTENT The impacts of climate change are now more visible and extreme - so too is the nature of mis-/disinfo. Wildfires, droughts, hurricanes and floods have all been weaponised to undermine action, and condemn anyone engaged in mitigation or adaptation efforts. #COP29

"Blame is attributed, not to a chronic failure to
meet climate targets or phase out fossil fuels, but
at everyone from ‘the Jewish cabal’ to weather
forecasters and frontline responders. Rather than
being relegated to the fringes of public discourse,
our evidence suggests that such narratives are
becoming even more mainstream, more violent,
and more impactful through repetition.

In many cases, this process is inseparable from
ongoing, systemic issues in the governance
of digital platforms and the incentives built
into social media. Each year, CAAD has tried to
pinpoint how big tech infrastructure enables bad
actors and produces harm – whether through
the monetising of disinformation; algorithmic
boosting of lies and abuse; opaque ad tech
systems; failure to address repeat offender
accounts; paid-for search engine results; or
enabling the multi-billion-dollar PR and marketing
machine of fossil fuel interests. Sadly, this report
spotlights many of those same issues, suggesting
limited progress in addressing them. The further
decay of information integrity is not a foregone
conclusion, but we must confront threats now,
before the damage is beyond repair. A range of
specific policy."

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/11/2024

Buckle up, kids: things are about to get maddening, bleak, and downright weird. But I promise we'll end with some viable solutions because - and I cannot stress this enough - the impact of disinfo on climate discourse is a SOLVABLE PROBLEM. Tl;dr: it's bad, we can fix it. caad.info/wp-content/u...

Mean Girls meme with the text "Get in loser, we're reviewing 2024 trends in climate disinformation"

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/11/2024

🌍🚨 COP DAY 1: RESEARCH KLAXON 🌍🚨 As the summit kicks off in Baku, our coalition has published a major review of online trends in 2024: “Extreme Weather, Extreme Content: How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation in a World on the Brink” 🧵 of key findings to follow 👇 caad.info/analysis/rep...

Cover for new report titled “Extreme Weather, Extreme Content: How Big Tech Enables Climate Disinformation in a World on the Brink”. The image shows a wildfire with the flames slowly becoming pixelated into a series of binary numbers.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 09/11/2024

“All users 18+ should have the right to opt-out of content moderation and curation entirely, and receive an unmanipulated stream of info.” He’s so close to making a sound point - except here it doesn’t mean transparency of algorithms or user control, but rather an unfettered stream of racial hate.

Final section of statement made by Donald Trump on “free speech”:

Furthermore, when users of big online platforms have their content or accounts removed, throttled, shadow-banned, or otherwise restricted no matter what name they use, they should have the right to be informed that it’s happening, the right to a specific explanation of the reason why, and the right to a timely appeal. In addition, all users over the age of 18 should have the right to opt-out of content moderation and curation entirely, and receive an unmanipulated stream of information if they so choose.

The fight for Free Speech is a matter of victory or death for America—and for the survival of Western Civilization itself. When I am President, this whole rotten system of censorship and information control will be ripped out of the system at large. There won’t be anything left.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 09/10/2024

You know a line has been crossed when even STEVE MILLOY - Heartland shill, disinfo super-spreader, literal architect of the “climate lockdown” conspiracy - is out here fact-checking. What a time to be alive. (H/t to @phenominal.bsky.social for spotting this gem) www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/u...

Post from Steve Milloy in which he fact-checks various conspiracies about hurricanes, including that they are caused by government manipulation of the weather.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 08/10/2024

A few more, just to hammer home the point. Note the 'Happy Merchant' antisemitic trope cited in image #2. Both these tweets are from earlier today. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_M...

Post from account named "Donald J. Trump News" implying weather models failed to predict Hurricane Milton and questioning if it's 'completely natural'. Only live for a few hours, and already racking up 4.7m views, 29k likes and 8.2k retweets.

Tweet by an account named "Gentile News Network", in which a satellite image shows clouds shaped like the antisemitic stereotype of a Jewish Man (the 'Happy Merchant' trope).

Comments include an AI-generated image of a religious man with a beard and a lizard dressed in the same clothing saying "faster!" to a scientist in a lab coat, as he controls a panel with weather imagery.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 08/10/2024

These trends are only worsening with Hurricane Milton, another Category 4 monster set to devastate Florida. For example, this post from yesterday which already has 1.4m views and 10k likes on X. If you’d like to discuss our research, my DMs are open or you can email media@isdglobal.org.

Post from X with 1.4m views and 10k likes, claiming to show “frequency waves pumping through Milton” and calling the hurricane “weather weapons. Not natural”.

A Community Note is attached debunking the claim via a range of scientific sources, but the post continues to gain traction. It was only shared yesterday.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 08/10/2024

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene racking up an absurd 43m views and nearly 42k likes for this.

Post from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claiming the government can control the weather, with 43m views and 42k likes

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 08/10/2024

Am loathe to give this content more oxygen, but also think it’s important to see how overt and extreme the antisemitic attacks are. A few examples:

Post on X with 39k views and over 2k likes citing the supposed Jewish leadership of gov agencies, with Stars of David marking each bullet point.

Post with an image labelled “The Kingdom of Alejandro Mayorkas” including a Star of David and the insignia of various government agencies.

Post listing Jewish personnel within FEMA by name and picture, with the caption “There are 2 kinds of people in this world - those who can read the chart, and those who notice this chart.” I have blurred out their images and details to respect privacy.

“Noticing” is a dog-whistle harking back to the Nazis, intended to highlight Jews as a threat to public life.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 08/10/2024

A handful of examples blaming the hurricane on weather manipulation, including cloud-seeding and HAARP. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also posted on this issue, alleging that Helene had been directed towards Republican-majority states.

Post from Matt Wallace on X with 2.2m views and 28.8k like spreading conspiracy about cloud seeding

Post from Stew Peters on X claiming Hurricane Milton is a targeted geo-weapon, with 2.2m views and 22k likes.

Community Note applied to Stew Peters’ post on X, and showing the post’s huge engagement metrics.

Post from account named “Concerned Citizen” on X blaming hurricane on weather manipulation, with over 820k views and nearly 20k likes

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 11/09/2024

Just got a push notification from The Times (of London)…

Op-Ed by James Kangasooriam in The Times arguing that Harris won the debate but is losing the Presidential race

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 13/06/2024

Ukraine and climate identified as the top two vectors for #disinformation in the EP elections, per 40 orgs working under the European Fact-Checking Standards Network. techpolicypress/what-we-lear...

Graph showing top ranked topics for disinformation during the 2024 European Parliamentary elections. Ukraine at #1, followed by climate, then “other”, “national-regional context issues” and “Israel-Gaza” following at similar levels.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 22/03/2024

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted in Prospect Magazine’s “Big Thinker of 2024” award! If you care about the impact of disinfo, have a partnership idea, or just want to know what phrases like “discourses of delay” really mean, check out our work at ISD www.isdglobal.org or CAAD www.caad.info

Screenshot showing the category winners for Prospect Magazine’s “Big Thinker of 2024” award, listing Jennie King (climate), Sylvia Tamale (human rights), Wang Hui (language and culture) and David Liu (public health).

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 10/12/2023

Why does this matter? Here’s a few reasons:

Screenshot of introduction from CAAD’s mini-report published Sunday 10 December, which explores the “false solutions” lobby on social media during #COP28

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 10/12/2023

Some key findings - check out the full (mini-)report here: caad.info/wp-content/u... Chevron’s TikTok posting is especially ‘fun’…🌶️ 👀 #climatesky #greensky @ketanjoshi.co

Summary of key findings from a mini-report published by Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) on Sunday 10 December. The piece explore the “false solutions” lobby online - in particular industry misinformation around carbon capture and storage - before and during the COP28 summit.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 30/11/2023

Full research, plus a detailed Methodology Annex, available here: caad.info/analysis/rep...

Front cover of the report “Deny, Deceive, Delay Vol.3: Climate Information Integrity ahead of COP28”, published by the coalition Climate Action Against Disinformation

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 29/11/2023

📢🚨 RESEARCH KLAXON 📢🚨 Today Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) - an alliance of 50+ orgs - released our latest trend analysis on the eve of #COP28. It has case studies exploring the ‘outrage economy’, fossil fuel lobby and state actors. Key findings to follow 👇 caad.info/analysis/rep...

Front cover of new report, entitled “Deny, Deceive, Delay (Vol.3): Climate Information Integrity Ahead of COP28”. The background shows a shadowy factory spewing out smoke, while the foreground has a phone screen filled with likes and angry face emojis. The report was produced by Climate Action Against Disinformation.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 16/11/2023

“Censorship Karen” reporting for duty! (Must admit it was an effective zinger - cut me deep, Mike)

Screenshot from a Twitter thread in which Michael Shellenberger posts headshots of ISD’s research team on climate disinformation and labels them “censorship Karens” (over 3k likes)

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 22/09/2023

The amount of damage Koch et al have caused - not only as fossil fuel barons but through deregulation and challenges to climate action - is almost too much to comprehend.

Description of Justice Clarence Thomas’ 180 on the Chevron legal precedent, and how this fulfilled a key Koch network objective.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 22/09/2023

I don’t know where to start with the latest exposé from ProPublica. It has sent my brain into a sort of protective hibernation. Also, this gathering at Bohemian Grove - contender for nightmare blunt rotation? www.propublica.org/article/clar...

Description of a Bohemian Grove gathering that involved SCOTUS Judge Clarence Thomas, Henry Kissinger, President of the American Enterprise Institute and the “thinking man’s climate denier” Bjorn Lomborg.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 27/07/2023

A hefty proportion of the remaining 25% was from Instagram, which shows just how poorly every other platform is doing on this front. Especially worrying for sites like Discord which are prime for child grooming.

Screenshot from NCMEC’s 2021 report on referrals for child sexual abuse material, broken down by platform

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 27/07/2023

Re: this heinous Musk/Dom Lucre situation. According to stats from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), they had 30 million referrals for online child abuse material in 2021. Over 75% of reports were submitted by FB alone. Tiktok and Twitter? They barely refer at all.

Screenshot from 2021 CyberTipline Reports by Electronic Service Providers (ESP)

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 17/07/2023

The latest edition of CAAD & @isdglobal.bsky.social's Climate Data Monitor is now live, feat. topic modelling of wildfire mis- and disinfo from 2019 to today. 🔥🌍 Subscribe at: climatedigital.typeform.com/to/FhSZ… 🚨Have an investigative lead or research steer?🚨 Email: contact@caad.info

Screenshot from Climate Data Monitor about wildfire misinformation

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 12/07/2023

Join @Internews' @earthjournalism network tomorrow (July 13) for a special focus group and webinar on the state of climate mis- and disinformation in East Africa! Sign up: buff.ly/3r4amFd

Flier for webinar hosted by Internews' Earth Journalism Network on July 13, titled 'What's the state of climate mis- and disinformation in East Africa' and featuring a keynote speech from Jennie King, Head of Climate Research and Policy at ISD. Starting 12:00 Nairobi time / 10:00 UK time.

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Jennie King @jkingy.eurosky.social · 07/07/2023

**Calling all journos** @isdglobal.bsky.social and @coveringclimatenow.org are hosting a special briefing on 13 July at 11:00 ET/16:00 BST/17:00 CEST. It will cover the latest trends in climate mis- and disinfo and how outlets can navigate these issues in their reporting. shorturl.at/lmoqY

Event poster for press briefing "The Ever-Shifting Landscape of Climate Misinformation" on Thursday 13 July at 11:00 Eastern Time / 16:00 British Standard Time / 17:00 Central Eastern Time

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