iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Climate is a hyperproblem, one that challenges how we create and reproduce meaning - that's why disinformation is a symptom, not the desease. To get a change at this we need to rethink our relationship with information. consen.so/p/manifesto-...

consen.so

Freedom is the right not to lie

A manifesto about climate, justice and misinformation in the social networks of 2025.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Albert Camus once said "The freedom we must conquer is the right not to lie". In times where the word freedom is bastardized by its worst enemies of yesterday, “only on this condition will we have reasons to live and die”. For true freedom, we need to rethink our relationship with information.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Social media. Where someone else is the one who gathers the harvest to sell things or feed an AI. Engulfed by the quest to reach the audience where it already was the unsustainable millennial techno optimism ethos in the name of innovation.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

It is not a contradiction that I was oblivious to all the discussions I was part of during all the years I worked as a fact-checker on COVID, climate and gender issues. But we where taught to reach the audience where it already was. Social media. Where information devours meaning.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Funding to fact-checkers was treated always more like a charity than a job as important as safeguarding the integrity of the information people receive on their smartphones every day. This can be witnessed by colleagues in Brazil, left more than once to the fate of digital hordes by Meta.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

About climate, justice and disinformation in 2025. Facebook-driven fact-checking scheme was always flawed by the conflict of interest between the platform's business model and PR damage control through funding to some media outlets.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

President of Paraguay just had a meeting with a representative from The Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025 and key player in climate and gender disinformation. This is happening as its own senators try to push him closer to Trump. consen.so/p/paraguay-e...

consen.so

El presidente de Paraguay se reúne con negacionistas climáticos en Estados Unidos

Santiago Peña se reunió con Victoria Coates de la Heritage Foundation, una de las principales ONGs que desinforman sobre el clima con dinero de las petroleras.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

André Corrêa do Lago, viejo conocido de quienes cubrimos las negociaciones climáticas, será el presidente de la COP30. Entre algunos detalles, es un vocero importante del uso de biocombustibles como parte de la transición energética.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Watching Latin Americans celebrate Trump's exit from the Paris Agreement is fascinating. Our countries suffer millions of dollars in losses due to climate phenomena that are the responsibility of the United States - and the Paris Agreement guarantees at least some justice in this regard.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

7 out of 10 Paraguayans live in a place where the local government does not have policies to mitigate or adapt to the impacts of climate change. Data from new Consen.so analysis while the country suffers an unprecedented heat wave.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

With Bing now also deleting the capacity of searching for cache version of websites - like Google before them - online research is becoming a little more harder by the day. Enshittification at its finest.

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Reposted by Maximiliano Manzoni

Luca Rossi @lrossi.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

This is a very important point. The perception of a biased attitude of social media platforms is just that and it's fueled by the fact that right-wing movements have built an ecosystem of misinformation / hyperpartisan information that usually doesn't stand any serious journalistic scrutiny.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Contrario a quienes creen que es un derecho decir cualquier estupidez, la eliminación del fact-checking en Meta nos deja sin uno de los pocos mecanismos de moderación de la plataforma que si tenía reglas claras. La moderación que sigue es la que está dictada por intereses privados y opacos.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

I wrote this article about the impact on Latam media and users of Meta's decision to end its fact-checking program. Also a more in-depth critique of the relationship between media and Big Tech in the face of climate, justice and misinformation in 2025. consen.so/p/el-derecho...

consen.so

El derecho a no mentir

Un editorial sobre clima, justicia y desinformación en las redes sociales de 2025.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Disinformation on social media is not a bug, but an inherent part of the economics of attention.

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Reposted by Maximiliano Manzoni

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 07/01/2025

Breaking News: Meta said it would end its fact-checking program and rely instead on Facebook and Instagram users to add notes or corrections to posts. The move is likely to please the incoming Trump administration and its conservative allies.

nytimes.com

Meta Reveals Plan to Alter Fact-Checking Program

The move will end a third-party fact-checking system and rely on users to add notes or corrections to posts. It is likely to please the incoming Trump administration and its conservative allies.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

In the process, several media outlets lent their prestige to wash Meta's reputation. “I will not sell my rich heritage at the low price of necessity” goes the saying.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Meta's defunding of its fact-checking initiative shows that the policy of “journalism incentives” was always a PR move. Many media fell - out of necessity or ideology - into a system that, as colleagues in Brazil know, never protected fact-checkers from harassment.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Eucalyptus plantations are the new climate solution in Paraguay - a solution funded by european public money with carbon markets in mind. But new solutions come with old conflicts, as an investigation shows how these plantations use PFOs or "forever chemicals" banned in Europe.

consen.so

La larga sombra de los eucaliptos

La nueva solución paraguaya ante la deforestación viene con un viejo problema: agroquímicos

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Sadly, there is an agriculture excepcionalism and really lack of interest on the issue most of the time.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Part of the GWP* narrative is also the "biogenic" part of livestock methane emissions. But fossil fuels could use, for example, the carbon credits derived from the new "climate negative" claims by Big Ag.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Hello #climate people! Latam journo here. I'm looking for some experts on GHG inventories to tackle some questions regarding the latest BTR from Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador. If have some experience about the shortcomings of GTP metrics, better. Thank you in advance.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

I took a small break from my time off to see the new reports of GHG in South America and... Eureka! Paraguay for the first time recognized the "possible overstimation" of carbon capture by soils, forests and eucalyptus plantations. Big issue for our NDCs.

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Reposted by Maximiliano Manzoni

Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

I’m obsessed with communication. Expression is my life. But… Someone in prison found a way to communicate with us via an act of care. Every time I’ve gotten my hair cut or done, I know I’ve been cared for. A prisoner made sure Luigi walked out looking good because they know image communicates.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

I'm more than stoked by this because of what it means in terms of impact: 1. The issue is recognized by the govt. 2. They are actually doing something about it. 3. They validated the data and method we created for this investigation at Consen.so

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

So today I have a little bit a good news! After our investigation into the lithium rush in Paraguay affecting indigenous lands the govt officially started to review the mining permits! And not only that, but they are doing it using the methodology we created! consen.so/p/litio-lice...

consen.so

Tras investigación de Consenso el MADES inicia revisión de licencias de litio

El Ministerio del Ambiente relevó primera licencia ambiental que desafecta tierras de los Ayoreo del área de concesión a Paraguay Lithium.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

In a related note, this year I know of a LATAM disinformation project that had to shut-down because of fears of SLAPPs and harassment.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

As a side note, Project 2025 included killing most of the research from the National Weather Service that I used for this piece - two years short from the World Cup happening in almost the same stadiums in the US.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

How I did it? Data from National Weather Service, @climatecentral.bsky.social and Trust from Public Land - plus daily analysis with QGIS and Arcgis. We also ran a small research into the fossil fuels relationship with the national teams involved at the tournament. consen.so/p/el-calor-j...

consen.so

El calor jugó de local en la Copa América 2024

Nueve partidos con temperaturas de riesgo grave a extremo y un árbitro colapsado. Pero auspiciados por petroleras.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Our special coverage on how heat affected the Copa América 2024 in the US is officially at the top of articles in Consen.so this year. By using public data and OSINT tools, we tracked at least 8 games played with dangerous temperatures, including one where a referee collapsed by a heatstroke.

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Reposted by Maximiliano Manzoni

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

I think this should be kind of a big deal: Elon Musk tweeting at 1:03am, “Only the AfD can save Germany.” The AfD is Germany’s neo-Nazi party.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Behind the lithium rush in Paraguay. We published an EN version of the Consen.so investigation shows that least one lithium concession granted by the govt is in indigenous land - without consent of the community. www.theparaguaypost.com/p/lithium-fe...

theparaguaypost.com

Lithium Fever Comes to the Chaco

What will the "white gold" mean for Paraguay's native peoples?

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

I think a good way to introduce you to my work is this piece. A 1-year investigation about how the senator behind of the carbon credits law in Paraguay didn't disclose family and business ties with the main corporation lobbying for Article 6.2 deals with Singapore. consen.so/p/que-intere...

consen.so

¿Qué intereses tiene Patrick Kemper (y su cuñado) en los mercados de carbono?

Investigación devela los vínculos familiares y económicos entre el senador, su cuñado Rodolfo Vouga y empresas interesadas en créditos de carbono.

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Maximiliano Manzoni @maximanzoni.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

¿Te interesa una cobertura donde el clima no es una tema sino un enfoque? ¿Querés huir del clickbait y el aforismo de las redes sociales? En Consen.so estamos investigando a quienes te quieren mentir para seguir ganando dinero a costa del futuro de todos. Suscribite.

consen.so

Consenso | Maximiliano Manzoni | Substack

Una newsletter sobre clima, justicia y desinformación desde Sudamérica. Click to read Consenso, by Maximiliano Manzoni, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

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