Twitter’s new move on climate change denial ads. What it signifies

Twitter has decided to block climate change denial ads, the social media giant announced on Friday. An official blog post marking the Earth Day read that, “misleading advertisements that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited, in line with our inappropriate content policy.”

The company believes that “climate denialism shouldn’t be monetised on Twitter,” it further read.

“Misleading information about climate change can undermine (the) efforts to protect the planet,” the social media giant also noted. In the coming months, the platform is set to share more details regarding its work to add reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations.

Twitter assesses the ads based on reports “from authoritative sources, such as the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” to determine whether it violates its inappropriate content policy, according to the statement.

The latest move comes as Twitter is trying to adopt various measures to address the issue of climate change – a step other internet giants are yet to wake up to. Last year, it introduced a Topic feature to help users find conversations about climate change and rolled out hubs of “credible, authoritative” information on an array of high-profile topics including the science backing climate change.

It has also set an aim for itself to only be using carbon-neutral power sourcing at its data centres by the end of 2022. Earlier this year, it joined the EU climate pact, committing to ambitious North Star and Pathway pledges, in line with Paris Agreement goals.

Meanwhile, the movie is also coming in the backdrop of tension between the micro-blogging company and an unwanted takeover bid by billionaire Elon Musk, who has said he thinks people should be able to say pretty much whatever they want on the platform.

According to reports, Musk is willing to invest between $10 billion and $15 billion of his own money to take Twitter private and make it a platform for – what he calls – “free speech.”

However, as tempting as access to Musk’s wealth may be for the firm, its employees have expressed unhappiness with the involvement of Musk, a billionaire known for shooting from the hip with little regard for the consequences.

The global one-to-many messaging platform is moving to prevent Musk from getting his hands on all of Twitter’s outstanding shares, signaling worries about where he would lead the company to outweigh the proffered payoff.