Pinterest is expanding its existing misinformation policy to include climate change.
The app will now prohibit any organic or advertising content that may harm the public’s well-being, safety or trust.
This includes content that denies the existence or impacts of climate change, false or misleading content about climate change solutions, content that misrepresents scientific data, including by omission or cherry-picking, and harmful, false, or misleading content about public safety emergencies including natural disasters and extreme weather events.
“Climate disinformation on digital platforms is a serious threat to the public support needed to solve the climate crisis,” says Michael Khoo, climate disinformation co-chair at Friends of the Earth.
“Pinterest has demonstrated great leadership by creating a community standard that includes a definition of climate misinformation, and we will continue to press all platforms for transparency and reporting on their actions. We encourage others to take note of Pinterest’s efforts to reduce climate change disinformation.”
Pinterest says this expanded policy makes it the only major digital platform to have clearly defined guidelines against false or misleading climate change information, including conspiracy theories, across content and ads.
The announcement comes as Australia is reeling from a summer of unprecedented rainfall, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) saying that “transformational change” is needed now to mitigate climate change.
“Pinterest believes in cultivating a space that’s trusted and truthful for those using our platform,” says Pinterest’s head of policy Sarah Bromma.
“This bold move is an expansion of our broader misinformation guidelines, which we first developed in 2017 to address public health misinformation, and have since updated to address new and emerging issues as they come to the forefront. The expanded climate misinformation policy is yet another step in Pinterest’s journey to combat misinformation and create a safe space online.”
Pinterest has partnered with experts including the Climate Disinformation Coalition and the Conscious Advertising Network to help inform and develop their policy based on common misinformation themes they’re seeing across media platforms.
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