CCDH ctr ctr digital HatE
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OMG TARGET 12 25 RUBIO
BS
must be getting traction: realclear investigations:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/11/03/washington-post-wants-facebook-to-shut-down-pj-media-and-others-for-climate-denial-n1529542
pj media r spencer
no lnx [banner about silence rt so give us $ radical agenda bs?]
while the Washington Post piously reminds us that “democracy dies in darkness,” it’s busy shooting out the lights: On Tuesday it published a lengthy call to Facebook to shut down dissident media, including PJ Media, because, you see, the non-Leftist publications are daring to spread “climate change denial” on the platform. Not just democracy, but also the freedom of speech will die in darkness if the Post gets its way.
The Post article focuses upon a newly published study from one of the endless stream of far-Left advocacy groups masquerading as think tanks, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which the Post hastens to assure us is a nonprofit. Of course. What else could it possibly be called?
Disagree with the Leftist establishment about the causes of and/or remedies for climate change, and what else could possibly be your motivation but “hate”? You don’t want to see your country voluntarily impoverish itself and empower the People’s Republic of China in service of unproven assumptions and selective application of accountability? Come on, man! You’re just a bigot!
The CCDH study supposedly shows that “10 publishers, including RT and the Federalist Papers, are responsible for nearly 70 percent of interactions with climate change misinformation on the platform.”The CCDH has labeled these publishers the “Toxic Ten,” and they comprise virtually all of the major dissident platforms operating today: Breitbart, the Western Journal, Newsmax, the Media Research Center, the Washington Times, the Federalist Papers, the Daily Wire, and the Patriot Post, along with Russian State Media (what’s a Leftist conspiracy theory these days without the Russians) and of course Townhall Media, including PJ Media, Townhall, Red State, and Twitchy.
These publications, the Post claims, put out “a broad range of climate disinformation, including articles that undermine the existence or impacts of climate change or misrepresent data in ways that might erode trust in climate science experts.” They’re out there exercising the freedom of speech, utterly heedless of the looming apocalypse: “The study comes amid increasing political concern about the catastrophic impact of climate change, as global leaders gather in Glasgow for the United Nations-brokered COP26, described as the last chance for nations to hammer out a unified plan to significantly cut greenhouse gases.”
The Post hopes that the CCDH report will put an end to all that and bring about still more ideological conformity on Facebook: “While the report doesn’t provide a comprehensive look at all misleading climate change content promoted on Facebook, it has the potential to inspire political action as the CCDH has historically captured policymakers’ attention.”
It notes that the CCDH’s earlier report, which targeted the “disinformation dozen” who supposedly spread “anti-vaccine content,” was repeatedly cited by the White House along with numerous lawmakers in Congress, and it was used as a proxy for questions about the role of social media in aggravating vaccine hesitancy.”
Related: Lefty Website Calling for Canceling Conservatives Is Stunned When YouTube Comes for Them]
The need to act is urgent, or so the CCDH and the Post would have you believe. CCDH chief Imran Ahmed wants you to know that he is thoroughly petrified: “When you put it all together, you’ve got these two industries, Big Oil and Big Tech, and they are the two industries that pose the greatest threat to the survival of our species.”
Facebook, however, is not being cooperative, and not exercising enough censorship: “Earlier this year, Facebook promised to start adding informational labels to some climate posts, much like it does with election or coronavirus posts. But CCDH researchers found that of the posts they surveyed containing climate misinformation, just 8% carried Facebook’s informational label.” Nor does it look as if this is going to change anytime soon.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone called the methodology of the CCDH study “flawed.” Facebook previously, according to the Post, “pushed back on the structure of the CCDH’s disinformation dozen report, arguing it was based on ‘narrow data’ that wasn’t representative of the hundreds of millions of posts that people shared about coronavirus vaccines on Facebook.”
That’s not to say that Facebook doesn’t interfere in climate change discussions at all. Nick Clegg, the social media giant’s vice president for global affairs and communications, noted that Facebook “reduces distribution of posts that its third-party fact-checkers say are false.” That’s not enough, as far as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Gestapo) is concerned. “Facebook and other social media companies make money when they send users down rabbit holes of climate change denial,” Whitehouse thundered. “That’s a very dangerous business model for the future of the planet. It’s hard to tell which is more disgusting: Facebook propagating this disinformation, or the fossil fuel industry funding it.”
So far Facebook isn’t cooperating, but fascists such as Whitehouse and the Post editors aren’t going to give up their efforts to silence all dissent and destroy the freedom of speech. As Paula Bolyard noted the other day regarding another controversial issue where PJ Media is telling truths that others fear to enunciate, “In 21st-century America, truth is considered a revolutionary idea….We’ve sacrificed a lot of revenue over the last few years because we refuse to cave to the social-media censors, but we will continue to tell the truth. If you want to support us in this mission, please consider becoming a VIP member. For the price of a cup of coffee per day, you can partner with us to make sure the Left isn’t the only voice out there.”
The Left is working hard to make sure it is the only voice out there. That’s why we must raise our voices all the louder.[$ ask]
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NYT
NO LNX
They Seek to Curb Online Hate. The U.S. Accuses Them of Censorship.
The Trump administration said five regulators and researchers who work to tackle disinformation and abuse on the internet had been barred from entering the United States.
By Adam Satariano
Reporting from London
Published Dec. 24, 2025
Updated Dec. 25, 2025
Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg lead a German legal aid organization that assists individuals facing online abuse and violent threats.
Clare Melford runs a British group that helps identify disinformation.
Imran Ahmed is a British activist who runs an organization that has chronicled anti-vaccination content on social media.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration accused all of them of a campaign of censorship against Americans.
The four individuals, along with a former senior European Commission official, Thierry Breton of France, were barred from entering the United States after Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled them “radical activists” who undercut free speech.
On Wednesday, European officials including President Emmanuel Macron of France criticized the Trump administration’s decision.
“These measures amount to intimidation and coercion aimed at undermining European digital sovereignty,” Mr. Macron said on social media. “The rules governing the European Union’s digital space are not meant to be determined outside Europe.”
Thomas Régnier, a spokesman for the European Commission, said, “Our digital rules ensure a safe, fair and level playing field for all companies, applied fairly and without discrimination.”
The travel ban is a major escalation in a dispute between the Trump administration and Europe over the regulation of online content and social media.
In the United States, free speech protections allow social media companies to set their own content policies. And Mr. Trump and others on the right have successfully pushed social media firms to roll back moderation rules that they viewed as silencing conservative voices.
In Britain and the European Union, there are certain restrictions on hate speech and open bigotry. In 2022, the European Union passed a law called the Digital Services Act that requires social media companies to meet transparency standards and to remove certain racist, antisemitic and violent content if it violates national laws.
The Trump administration sees the Digital Services Act as an attempt to force American platforms to censor speech globally — an allegation European officials deny.
The issue came to a head this month when the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X $140 million. The commission said that the site had violated the Digital Services Act by selling verification check marks that allow users to mislead others about their identities, by maintaining opaque advertising practices and by refusing to provide researchers with data access. In response, Mr. Musk said the European Union should be abolished.
Mr. Breton helped draft the digital services law when he was a European commissioner overseeing digital policy.
The other individuals facing a travel ban were involved in nonprofit organizations that the Trump administration accused of targeting American social media companies and users.
Ms. Ballon, co-chief executive of HateAid, a German group that assists victims of online attacks, said she received an email on Tuesday notifying her that her visa had been revoked. She did not understand why until a few hours later, when she saw a news article about Mr. Rubio’s announcement.
HateAid, founded in 2018, provides counseling, safety advice and litigation financing to help victims of online attacks take legal action against perpetrators. The group, which Ms. Ballon runs with Ms. von Hodenberg, also lobbies for stronger regulation of social media companies in Germany and the rest of the European Union.
German officials came to the organization’s defense on Wednesday after the Trump administration accused it of countering conservative groups.
“The entry bans imposed by the USA, including those against the chairpersons of HateAid, are not acceptable,” Johann Wadephul, the German foreign minister, said on social media.
Ms. Ballon and Ms. von Hodenberg said in a statement, “We will not be intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who stand up for human rights and freedom of expression.”
Ms. Melford runs the Global Disinformation Index, a group that provides risk ratings to advertising firms to help them avoid placing ads on websites seen as spreading disinformation and harmful content. In a statement, the group called the travel ban “an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship.”
Mr. Ahmed is the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has teams in Britain and the United States. Mr. Musk sued the group in 2023 after the organization documented a rise in hate speech on Twitter following his acquisition of the platform, which is now called X. An American court dismissed the lawsuit last year as a violation of the right to free speech.
Mr. Ahmed could not be reached for comment.
Adam Satariano is a technology correspondent for The Times, based in London.
A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 25, 2025, Section B, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: 5 Fighters of Online Hate Are Barred From the U.S..
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no lnx an 7 23 twt
google-owned YouTube is again facing allegations of profiting from not enforcing its own ban on the monetization of climate misinformation, this time in a report published Friday amid legislative battles in Brazil over policies on the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and social media.
Google announced in October 2021 that for advertisers and publishers along with creators on its video platform YouTube, the company would "prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change."
For four weeks, researchers with Ekō—a group formerly known as SumOfUsthat works to curb the power of big corporations—reviewed 60 YouTube videos in English and Portuguese that contained disinformation and conspiracy theories about Amazon deforestation, Indigenous rights, and the climate emergency.
Over two-thirds of the videos were monetized, and Ekō identified more than 150 brands in the ads. Using a common industry tool, researchers estimated that the channels—which collectively had over 40 million subscribers and more than 5 million views—earn $636,000 to $10.1 million a year through monetization.
"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, and social media regulation."
"Well-known Brazilian and global brands likeLyft, Calvin Klein, Budweiser, Panasonic, and Samsung, as well as environmental and human rights groups like Friends of the Earth U.K., UNICEF, and the Peace Corps,are appearing next to extreme climate denial content and conspiracy theories," the report states, "effectively pouring money into the pockets of conspiracy theorists and climate deniers."
"Ekō researchers found top-name apparel, electronics, and drink brands appearing next tovideos suggesting actor Leonardo DiCaprio funded nongovernmental organizations to commit arson in the Amazon,"the publication continues. "Other false claims include that the rainforest is too humid to catch fire, and that manmade global warming is a lie."
"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, andsocial media regulation," the document adds, pushing for policy "that prevents platforms from monetizing and profiting from disinformation and lies that are subverting the legislative process."
In a statement Friday, Ekō campaign director Vicky Wyatt also demanded action from the company.
"While global warming, deforestation, and wildfires reach their highest levels ever recorded, YouTube's shameless greenwashing is exposed—with the company giving profits to climate deniers to the tune of millions," said Wyatt. "This is a clear slap in the face to the brands whose advertisements unknowingly support climate disinformation. It's time for YouTube to step up, detox its platform, and protect the integrity of the fight against the climate crisis."
Ekō's analysis follows a May report from Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) for which researchers found 200 YouTube videos containing climate mis- and disinformation. The videos had a total of 73.8 million views and all had featured ads.
YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman told Engadget in response to those findings that the company is "constantly working" to remove content that violates its rules and welcomes third-party feedback to "help improve the accuracy of our enforcement over time."
"In 2021, we launched a new, industry-leading policy that explicitly prohibits ads from running on content promoting false claims about the existence and causes of climate change, which we designed in consultation with experts and authoritative sources on climate science," Aciman also said. "We do allow policy debate or discussions of climate-related initiatives, but when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we remove ads from serving on those videos.”
Meanwhile, Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, part of the CAAD coalition, said at the time that "despite Google's green grandstanding, its ads continue to fuel the climate denial industry."
"Whether it's taking cash to target users with climate disinformation, or running ads that make climate denial content profitable, the company is selling out," Hood added. "Tech companies make big promises on hate and misinformation because they know it's hard to see if they've kept them. We need to force Google to open up the black box of its advertising business."
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rg&b 3 22
cALL IT META IF YOU LIKE, BUT FACEBOOK STILL LOUSY AT DEALING WITH CLIMATE DISINFORMATION
A study released Wednesday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that around half of the content from purveyors of climate science denial gets no warning labels or fact checking from Facebook moderators. Last May, Facebook vowed to attach “informational labels” to posts about the climate crisis and direct users to the social media platform’s “Climate Science Information Center.”
in November, the CCDH published its Toxic Ten report, identifying just 10 publishers with articles that make up 69% of Facebook interactions with climate denial articles. Breitbart, the Federalist Papers, Daily Wire, and Russian state media were among the 10. What the researchers found was that 50.5% of the 184 most popular posts associated with articles promoting climate science denial carried no information label. Among them: A Breitbart article claiming global warming is not real and a “hoax”; a Washington Times article claiming that “COVID-19 and climate change are being used to steal our liberties”; a NewsBusters article referring to “alarmist climate propaganda”; a Daily Wire article claiming “the Left Is Spreading Global Warming Alarmism”; and a Breitbart article branding a leading climate scientist a “climate alarmist.” Of the other 49.5%, all had a label linking them to the climate science resource center, but just one was a fact check of bad information contained in the post.
Said CCDH’s Chief Executive Imran Ahmed, “By failing to do even the bare minimum to address the spread of climate denial information, Meta is exacerbating the climate crisis. Climate change denial—designed to fracture our resolve and impede meaningful action to mitigate climate change—flows unabated on Facebook and Instagram.” A spokesperson for Facebook claimed the CCDH report only covers the rollout of the warning system and not how effective it is now.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has pledged to initiate action against Facebook if it fails to do a better job at dealing with climate lies.....
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https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/rfk-jr-ally-and-campaign-speaker-sherri-tenpenny-forwarded-antisemitic
no lnx vid 7 23
RFK Jr. ally and campaign speaker forwarded antisemitic COVID conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial
WRITTEN BY ERIC HANANOKI
PUBLISHED 07/19/23 10:26 AM EDT
RFK Jr. and Sherri Tenpenny
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has endorsed quack doctor Sherri Tenpenny as someone who’s “leading this movement” against vaccines and recently featured her at a “health policy roundtable.” Tenpenny last year promoted the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 vaccine is a “bioweapon” that doesn’t affect Jewish people and has shared numerous antisemitic claims on social media, including Holocaust denial and praise for The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Tenpenny’s promotion of the conspiracy theory about Jewish people and the COVID-19 vaccine is newly relevant as Kennedy recently made a similar claim, stating that there’s “an argument” that COVID-19 is “ethnically targeted,” adding: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”
Kennedy is scheduled to speak at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government on Thursday.
Tenpenny is an anti-vaccine commentator who became well-known after she falsely claimed during a 2021 hearing in Ohio that the COVID-19 vaccine makes you “magnetized.” She predicted last year that “by the end of 2022,every fully vaccinated person over the age of 30 may have the equivalent of full-blown vaccine-induced immune suppressed AIDS.” She has become one of the leading online promoters (along with Kennedy) of false claims about vaccines.
Tenpenny has been a significant ally of Kennedy over the years. She participated in a Kennedy campaign “health policy roundtable” last month, where she was described by Kennedy as a “renowned” critic “of prevailing health policy.” She has numerous other connections to the presidential candidate:
Kennedy has endorsed her work, telling people in response to their concerns about vaccines: “There’s a couple of things that people should be doing … They need to join the organized resistance, which means joining Children’s Health Defense, supporting what you do, Polly, with vacs too, supporting Dell, supporting Rashid Buttar and Sherri Tenpenny, the people who are stalwarts, who are leading this movement.”
Tenpenny has said of Kennedy: “I've known Bobby personally for a long time. You know, we've had dinner together multiple times. We've shared the stage at various conferences. He's wicked smart.”
She was featured as an “expert” in a 2021 event with Kennedy “regarding the safety and effectiveness of the COVID vaccine.”
She was a guest in 2020 on Kennedy’s show Truth, where she was described as a “renowned physician.”
Children’s Health Defense, which was founded by Kennedy, has featured Tenpenny in videos as an expert and has published her writing.
She appeared on the now-defunct Russian-funded network RT America with Kennedy about vaccines.
Kennedy has numerous connections to other extremists, including a fringe commentator who claimed that “Hitler was a Rothschild” and that he was “utterly set up.” His presidential campaign has been cheered on by right-wing media figures and — after floating his Jewish COVID conspiracy theory — anti-semites and neo-Nazis. Children’s Health Defense has also conducted outreach to neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and QAnon users on the far-right platform Gab.
Tenpenny has a history of promoting antisemitic material on social media. The following are numerous examples.
Tenpenny promoted Jewish “bioweapon” conspiracy theory. In January 2022, Tenpenny shared a video of conspiracy theorist Lee Merritt that has the title, “Ashkenazi Jews not affected by mass sterilization through covid vaccines.” Tenpenny wrote: “Ever hear of race-specific bioweapons? A race-specific bioweapon is a bioweapon designed to affect only certain races, or genetic profiles to which certain genes are common. #Sterilization #BioWeapon #Ashkenazi.”
Sherri Tenpenny bioweapon claim
Tenpenny shared a video featuring someone falsely claiming that “the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler.” Tenpenny forwarded a post featuring Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson stating: “I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers.” Tenpenny’s post was uncovered by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and provided to Insider.
Sherri Tenpenny Holocaust forward
Tenpenny has repeatedly criticized the removal of Holocaust denier material on social media. Tenpenny responded to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s statement that he would ban Holocaust denier content by writing: “Thank you for your honesty on your censorship decisions which remove the right to Freedom of Speech.” She has also attacked UNESCO after it criticized Holocaust denier material, writing: “UNWSCO is Calling for massive censorship on Telegram & other platforms to be in effect by 2023. #NoCensorship #FreeSpeech #SocialMedia.”
Tenpenny forwarded a post which claimed: “Since all the CEOs of the major vaccine manufacturers are Jewsmy questions is do these Jews get the real vaccine or saline in the publicity staged vaccine shows?” Tenpenny’s post was uncovered by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and provided to The Jewish Chronicle.
Tenpenny praised a film promoting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. She wrote in 2020: “*THE PLAN EXPOSED*: Janet Ossebaard's *The Protocols of Zion*. An exact blueprint and illustration of how they took control!” The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum wrote of that publication: “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times. Its lies about Jews, which have been repeatedly discredited, continue to circulate today, especially on the internet. The individuals and groups who have used the Protocols are all linked by a common purpose: to spread hatred of Jews.”
The Tenpenny-endorsed video begins by stating: “The Protocols of Zion, dismissed as a hoax. But we can assure you, after months of in-depth research, that they are not. They were slightly ordered, yes, but they are not a hoax.”
Tenpenny forwarded a post that attacked “(((Ukraine)))” and “the (((WHO)))” and concluded: “Same tribe every time [Star of David emoji].” The triple parentheses is also known as an echo and is used by antisemites to identify Jewish people. Tenpenny’s post was previously reported by Mother Jones.
Sherri Tenpenny forwards "same tribe" antisemitism
Tenpenny promoted the conspiracy theory that the “Rothschilds patented the COVID-19” tests in 2015 and 2017. The claim about the Rothschilds, a Jewish family that is the subject of numerous antisemitic conspiracy theories, is false.
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https://www.counterhate.com/toxicten
How 10 fringe publishers fuel 69% of digital climate change denial
The science is undeniable - human activity is warming our planet at an ever-accelerating rate and leading to catastrophic climate change.
Yet, ten publishers - The Toxic Ten - are spreading baseless, unscientific climate denial on their own websites and across social media. They are responsible for 69% of all interactions with climate denial content on Facebook.
It's a climate denial propaganda machine funded in part by Google via ad revenue, and spread across the world via social media, in particular Facebook, who allow them to pay to promote their denial.
We are calling on Facebook and Google to stop promoting and funding climate denial, start labelling it as misinformation, and stop giving the advantages of their enormous platforms to lies and misinformation.
dl rept
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................. 3
Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................................... 4
The Toxic Ten have a huge digital footprint with 186 million direct followers..................................................... 5
The Toxic Ten account for 69% of interactions with climate denial on Facebook.............................................. 6
Facebook failed to label 92% of Toxic Ten posts....................................................................................................8
The Toxic Ten have generated $5.3 million in Google Ads revenue..................................................................... 9
Platforms must either stop doing business with climate deniers or stop claiming to be “green”...................10
Appendix: The Toxic Ten...........................................................................................................................................11
1 Breitbart.............................................................................................................................................................. 12
2 The Western Journal.........................................................................................................................................13
3 Newsmax ...........................................................................................................................................................14
4 Townhall Media..................................................................................................................................................15
5 Media Research Center....................................................................................................................................16
6 The Washington Times..................................................................................................................................... 17
7 The Federalist Papers.......................................................................................................................................18
8 The Daily Wire....................................................................................................................................................19
9 Russian State Media ........................................................................................................................................20
10 The Patriot Post...............................................................................................................................................21
Appendix: Defining “climate disinformation” and “climate denial” ......................................................................22
Appendix: Climate denial query ..............................................................................................................................22
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TownHall Mediais a publishing group that operates Townhall.com, Red State, PJ Media and Twitchy, all of which share misinformation with a total audience of 6.2 million followers. Townhall Media’s sites have published false or misleading claims on Covid and vaccines, including unproven allegations about dangerous side effects of vaccines and the efficacy of horse-dewormer ivermectin as a treatment.45 Climate denial content also regularly features on Townhall Media’s websites, where columnists refer to it as a “hoax”.46
Founded in 1995, Townhall.com was originally a publication of the Heritage Foundation, which has received significant funding from the fossil fuel industry including $870,000 from ExxonMobil.47 The Heritage Foundation was also, along with ExxonMobil and the Koch Brothers, an early member of the ‘Cooler Heads Coalition’ that has lobbied against climate policy and promoted climate denial for decades.48 Although Townhall Media is estimated to have relatively modest annual revenue of $249,263, it was acquired in 2006 by Salem Media Group which has an annual revenue of $236 million.49
This article from our sample by PJ Media, one of Townhall Media’s properties, questions the severity of global warming and suggests “there is little concrete evidence” that carbon emissions have an impact on global climate.50 It has carried ads for the delivery company DHL, whose CEO Dr Frank Appel has promised to “commit to a science-based target and reduce our emissions by 2030”.51
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the Washington Times is a daily newspaper that bills itself as “a trusted counterweight to the mainstream media”.67 Founded in 1982 by Unification Church leader and self-proclaimed “messiah” Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the site regularly posts misinformation including conspiracies about President Obama’s religion and nationality and the claim that Covid is a media hoax.68 Climate denial content on the site includes claims that scientists are “crying wolf” and misrepresenting data on climate change.69 The Washington Times also published an “Energy and Environment 2021 special report” featuring sponsored content from oil and gas industry executives. Its editorials included an article titled “There is no climate emergency” written by the director of the climate denier CO2 Coalition.70 Outside of The Washington Times, Moon has also funded the Science and Environmental Policy Project, a coalition which challenges scientific consensus on climate change.7[pix]
the Washington Times article included in our sample claims there is a “cult of ‘climate change’” and that its “worship” risks people’s future because it is based on unproven claims and predictions.72 The article has carried Google ads for X-ES, a computer hardware manufacturer.
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Media Research Center (MRC) is a think tank founded in 1987 by political activist Brent Bozell.54 It bills itself as “America’s Media Watchdog” and attacking “leftist bias in the news media and popular culture”.55 The group has attacked media coverage of climate science.56 MRC’s revenue comes from contributions, gifts, and ad revenue. According to tax documents, it earned over $11 million in revenue in 2019, including $604,000 from ads.57 Between 2010 and 2017, MRC received nearly $19 million from hedge fund billionaire and Republican donor Robert Mercer according to tax documents.58 In 2017, MRC sponsored a conference by climate denier think tank the Heartland Institute, which was also attended by Robert Mercer.59 Other funders include fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil, which has a record of donating to climate sceptic organizations.60 MRC uses its NewsBusters website to criticize media coverage of climate science.61 The site often uses the phrase “climate alarmist” to refer to people who highlight the threat of climate change.62 MRC also operates the media outlets CNSNews.com and MRCTV.63
[eg pix] this NewsBusters article brands climate science as “alarmism” and promotes the suggestion that “so-called ‘hottest year’ claims… are political statements designed to persuade the public that the government needs to take action on man-made climate change.”64 This article has carried Google ads for the tech giant’s own Chrome web browser.
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BS
ggl alert 11 21
https://www.minotdailynews.com/opinion/national-columnists/2021/11/climate-democracy-dies-in-darkness/
tim graham
British leftist group calling itself the Center for Countering Digital Hate has issued a report on what it calls the “Toxic Ten,” which are so-called fringe websites spreading “climate change denial.” The ten include our group, the Media Research Center, as well as Breitbart, The Daily Wire, Townhall Media, Newsmax, The Washington Times and The Western Journal.
So, any challenge to Greenpeace climate-crackdown orthodoxy is now classified as “toxic” and “digital hate.”
Their solution? To press Facebook and Google to “stop monetizing” these conservative sites, stop allowing them to buy ads and to “comprehensively label” their climate reporting as misinformation. You don’t have to prove conservatives wrong. Just “comprehensively label” them as false.
Once again, the left wants to win debates by stopping any debate from happening. The founder of this “Digital Hate” squad is a man named Imran Ahmed, who previously co-authored the book “The New Serfdom: The Triumph of Conservative Ideas and How to Defeat Them,” with Angela Eagle, a Labour Party member of Parliament.
Ahmed can already count on jihad from the “objective media.”Their British socialist friends at The Guardian awarded their report with the headline “‘Super polluters’: the top 10 publishers denying the climate crisis on Facebook.”
Offering any criticism of climate panic (and climate policy) is “super polluting.” Does this sound like science, or does it sound like political hyperbole? Naturally, Ahmed told The Guardian, “big tech is once again on the wrong side of science, truth and human progress.”
The Washington Post also provided a pliant piece headlined “Breitbart has outsized influence over climate change denial on Facebook,report says.” Tech reporter Cat Zakrzewski warned, “The far-right news and commentary site is one of just 10 publishers responsible for nearly 70 percent of interactions with climate change denial content on Facebook.”
On Twitter, Zakrzewski gushed, “The nonprofit has been effective in drawing policymakers’ attention to falsehoods on social media, as it did with its ‘disinformation dozen’ report earlier this year.”
The Post reporter avoided any evidence of “falsehoods” by engaging with conservative articles. She blithely wrote that, “For years, Facebook has faced pressure to issue a broad ban on climate misinformation,” and that somehow doesn’t strike her as distasteful censorship.
My column on ClimateDepot founder Marc Morano’s book “Green Fraud” was pictured under the Daily Wire section of the report. The MRC section is illustrated with a Joseph Vazquez article on NewsBusters about … Marc Morano. He’s apparently Digital Hater No. 1.
In my Morano column, I noted that the climate panic lobby is never held accountable for failed predictions of doom from decades ago. In one PBS series called “Race to Save the Planet,” Meryl Streep claimed, “By the year 2000 — that’s less than 10 years away — the earth’s climate will be warmer than it’s been in over 100,000 years. If we don’t do something, there’ll be enormous calamities in a very short time.”
In 2021, that can be defined as climate misinformation.
But panic helps Democrats sell a crackdown.The Post story quotedSen. Sheldon “Whites Only” Whitehousecomplaining, “Facebook and other social media companies make money when they send users down rabbit holes of climate change denial. That’s a very dangerous business model for the future of the planet.”
Apparently, the “business model” is this: Only the leftists get to talk on climate policy; everyone else should be suppressed. No one is allowed to question the failed predictions and overwrought “solutions” of climate experts like Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The Washington Post should embrace their business model with the slogan “Climate Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
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https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf
Disinformation Dozen are responsible for up to 65% of antivaccine content At the outset of this research, we identified a dozen individuals who appeared to be extremely influential creators of digital anti-vaccine content. These individuals were selected either because they run anti-vaccine social media accounts with large numbers of followers, because they produce high volumes of anti-vaccine content or because their growth was accelerating rapidly at the outset of our research in February. Full profiles of each are available at the end of this report.
- Joseph Mercola 2. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 3. Ty and Charlene Bollinger 4. Sherri Tenpenny 5. Rizza Islam 6. Rashid Buttar 7. Erin Elizabeth 8. Sayer Ji 9. Kelly Brogan 10. Christiane Northrup 11. Ben Tapper 12. Kevin Jenkins
TheDisinformation Dozen are responsible for up to 65% of anti-vaccine contentOur analysis of over 812,000 posts extracted from Facebook and Twitter between 1 February and 16 March 2021 shows that 65 percent of anti-vaccine content is attributable to the Disinformation Dozen...
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...Our previous report, The Disinformation Dozen, found that up to 65% of anti-vaccine content on social media originates from just 12 individuals, was raised with social media company CEOs at a Congressional hearing on 25 March 2021. The findings of the report were also raised with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by Senators Klobuchar and Luján, by Senator Warner and 12 state attorneys general. • Social media platforms have not taken action on the Disinformation Dozen: ten remain on Facebook and Twitter, and nine remain on Instagram. • In the month since publication of the Disinformation Dozen report, 105 posts from the accounts remaining on social media have breached the platforms’ stated policies for disinformation.
They include posts falsely linking Covid vaccines to thousands of deaths, conspiracies claiming COVID was lab-engineered, posts describing masks on youngsters as “child abuse”, and posts suggesting that the vaccine makes women infertile. •
The Disinformation Dozen – including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joseph Mercola, and Ty and Charlene Bollinger – have repeatedly violated Facebook, Instagram and Twitter’s policies. While some have been removed from a single platform, most remain active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. • We estimate that the anti-vaccine disinformation posted by these 12 individuals and their organisations in the past month has been seen up to 29 million times. • Facebook, Instagram and Twitter must do what they promised and remove the remaining accounts of the Disinformation Doz...
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disinformation Dozen:
The Sequel}:
How Big Tech is failing to act on leading anti-vaxxers despite bipartisan calls from Congress
Appearing before Congress in March, tech CEOs promised to act on twelve anti-vaxxers who are responsible for almost two-thirds of anti-vaccine content circulating on social media. One month on, our report shows that Big Tech has failed to act, allowing the spread of vaccine disinformation that has been viewed up to 29 million times.
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...Tenpenny has been added to the Center for Countering Digital Hate's infamous"disinformation dozen**," a group described as "12 people it said were responsible for spreading a majority of anti-vaxxer falsehoods on Facebook."
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ref report
no lnx
KEY FINDINGS
Analysis of a sample of anti-vaxx content that was shared or posted on Facebook and
Twitter showed up to 65% of anti-vaccine content can be traced to the leading online
anti-vaxxers, who we label the Disinformation Dozen.
? Individuals were selected based upon their high social media followings and high
volume production of anti-vaccine content.
? Our sample of anti-vaccine content was shared or posted onFacebook or Twitter a
total of 812,000 times between February 1 and March 16 2021, with 65% of that
sample attributable to the Disinformation Dozen.
? In the last two months, our analysis of anti-vaxx content posted or shared to
Facebook 689,000 times shows that up to 73% of that content originates from
the leading anti-vaxxers included in this report.
? Analysis of 120,000 anti-vaccine tweets and shares during this period finds that
up to 17% feature the Disinformation Dozen.
Deplatforming repeat offenders is the most effective way of stopping the proliferation of
dangerous misinformation.
?The Disinformation Dozen -- including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joseph Mercola, and
Ty and Charlene Bollinger, among others -- continually violate the terms of service
agreements on Facebook and Twitter. While some anti-vaxxers identified by
CCDH have been removed from a single platform, comprehensive action has yet to
be taken, and most remain active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
? CCDH’s ongoing tracking of 425 anti-vaxx accounts finds that the total following
across platforms reached 59.2 million in December 2020, an increase of 877,000
since June
https://www.counterhate.com/disinformationdozen
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an 721
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The New York Times profiles 'most influential' purveyor of online COVID vaccine misinformation
Dartagnan and Daily Kos July 25, 2021
Many of us who maintain a social media presence have at least one acquaintance, "Facebook friend" or real-life, actual friend who has in the past year shared some type of official-sounding, medical jargon-laden post questioning the value of the COVID-19 vaccines — or worse, directly asserting or implying that such vaccines are ineffective, harmful, deadly, or will lead to untold health problems.
According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a U.S./UK non-profit dedicated to fighting online disinformation and hate, nearly two-thirds of the anti-vaccine propaganda peddled in online forums and social media can be traced to exactly twelve individuals, colloquially labelled the "Disinformation Dozen." If you are someone who spends a significant time in social media forums, the chances are high that you have seen, scrolled through or otherwise had some awareness of their activity online, be it in your local school board's Facebook feed or other community sounding boards where supposedly informed individuals trade opinions and information.
According to the New York Times, and as confirmed in the CCDH's comprehensive report profiling these individuals, the number one purveyor of this vaccine misinformation is a gentleman named Joseph Mercola, described by the Times as an osteopathic physician. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he currently headquarters his company in the state of Florida, which, as USA Today's Nada Hassanein illustrates, is rapidly emerging as the nation's predominant "hotspot" for spiking COVID-19 infections, almost entirely among those who have refused to be vaccinated against the virus.
On Saturday the Times' Sheera Frankel profiled Dr. Mercola and cited multiple examples of his work, beginning with an article he published that appeared on Facebook in February. As Frankel reports, that article, clocking in at 3400 words, "declared coronavirus vaccines were "a medical fraud" and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease." The article (now deleted by Facebook) purportedly claimed that COVID-19 vaccines "alter[ed] your genetic coding, turning you into a viral protein factory that has no off-switch." Spread by other anti-vaccine activists and translated into multiple languages, these assertions eventually reached 400,000 Facebook viewers.
Mercola, described as an "internet-savvy entrepreneur who employs dozens," has, according to Frankel's reporting, published approximately 600 articles on Facebook since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Mercola is the pioneer of the anti-vaccine movement," said Kolina Koltai, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies online conspiracy theories. "He's a master of capitalizing on periods of uncertainty, like the pandemic, to grow his movement."
As the vaccination effort in this country approaches what can charitably be described as peak acceptance, the focus of many in the media has justifiably been on such political propaganda outlets such as Fox News, whose motivation for disseminating such lies can be attributed to political ends. It has become increasingly obvious, however, that many of those who refuse to be vaccinated (and thus contribute to the spread of COVID-19 through mutations such as the current delta variant) are having their political preconceptions against vaccinations reinforced through pseudo-medical misinformation they read online.
Several of the individuals profiled in the USA Today article (linked above via Yahoo News) illustrate the huge role social media has taken in fueling and perpetuating the COVID-19 pandemic in this country. As one physician in Florida's Calhoun county -- one of the epicenters of the recent surge in the state's COVID cases, with a current vaccination rate of only 23% -- observes, it is virtually impossible to dissuade people from believing something they read on social media about these vaccines, particularly when it carries the imprimatur of medical expertise.
"We're a small community. We all know people who passed away from COVID. When someone passes away, it's people we know," Davis said. "But I still don't feel like that overrides what people have seen on social media."
Davis has heard it all – from the myths that the vaccine will turn people magnetic to the virus being a hoax. She tries to quell fears, countering the false claims with research and data but patients often shut the conversation down.
The responses she and other medical providers in Florida hear from people who refuse the vaccine typically include assertions that the vaccines are untested, "experimental", and that there is too much contradictory information about them online. Significantly, some of these opinions are being influenced by medical providers themselves; one gentleman quoted in the USA Today article was told by his wife, a registered nurse, that "the vaccines hadn't been studied enough."
As Frankel's article points out, the general scientific and medical illiteracy most of the US population provides the perfect breeding ground for purveyors and profiteers of unreliable information. Mercola is a case in point:
[R]ather than directly stating online that vaccines don't work, Dr. Mercola's posts often ask pointed questions about their safety and discuss studies that other doctors have refuted. Facebook and Twitter have allowed some of his posts to remain up with caution labels, and the companies have struggled to create rules to pull down posts that have nuance.
According to Frankel's article, Mercola, who originally practiced in Illinois, began in the 1990's to shift his practice towards alternative medicine and promoting natural health cures and treatments. A prolific author, he has even had a book on the New York Times' bestseller list. As his fame (and wealth) have increased, he has developed a multinational presence through various consulting companies and offices. His selling tactics, bolstered by a Facebook following of over 1.7 million (he has a Spanish language page with one million followers as well), resort to a routine pattern, according to Frankel:
It starts with making unproven and sometimes far-fetched health claims, such as that spring mattresses amplify harmful radiation, and then selling products online — from vitamin supplements to organic yogurt — that he promotes as alternative treatments.
As Frankel reports, both Twitter and Facebook have taken down and issued cautions about several of Mercola's postings, He has been sued by the Federal Trade Commission for purveying disinformation regarding the cancer-reducing qualities of tanning beds, and he has received a warning from the FDA regarding his claims of about the efficacy of vitamin treatments in treating COVID-19 infection, and for selling unapproved health products. None of these actions appear to have dissuaded him from continuing to post misinformation. Frankel cites a recent example of Mercola continuing to raise questions about the efficacy of the vaccines through his social media feed.
As noted above, Mercola is hardly the only one responsible for vaccine denialism; he is simply has the biggest audience. It's clear though, from what is happening on the ground in Florida, for example, with the widespread refusal among a susceptible, medically ignorant population to accept these vaccines (even in the face of increased infections and deaths), that this country faces an almost perfect storm of disinformation.
Fear is indeed the "mind-killer." By cynically downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic over the past year and a half, Republicans like Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and their allies in the US. Congress and state legislatures have fostered an environment where people's fears and doubts take precedence over science. Those fears and doubts are then exponentially amplified and reinforced by what they read on social media. The anti-vaccine movement has taken full advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to sow doubt and regurgitate false or misleading information.
What we are witnessing right now in this country is the predictable outcome of these two insidious, destructive, and wholly complementary narratives, almost in real time.
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