"'Arctic ice is not melting’: Far right newspaper promotes climate disinformation on Meta", 3 May 2024

A Global Witness investigation has found that The Epoch Times is targeting people in the UK with adverts on Facebook and Instagram that deny the existence of climate change and question its severity.

The Epoch Times is a conservative media outlet with a history of promoting conspiracy theories. The adverts include false claims that ‘Arctic ice is not melting’ and that ‘higher CO2 levels are not a problem’ and have been shown to users of Meta platforms more than a million times, our investigation found.

Global Witness believes these ads breach the Advertising Standards Authority’s rules. We have submitted complaints to the ASA, asking them to open an investigation with a view to banning the ads. As a result of our investigation, Meta has blocked Epoch Times London’s ability to post adverts for repeatedly violating their ads policies. 

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Conclusion

Advertisers should not be able to spread climate lies to millions of users on social media. In an election ‘megacycle’ year, when more than half the world’s population is going to the polls – including in the UK - this type of disinformation is even more concerning. Rising to the urgent challenge of climate change will require collective action and healthy debate. These efforts are undermined when advertisers pay for blatant climate lies to proliferate online.

Ahead of the UK election, the ASA has an opportunity to investigate The Epoch Times and ensure adverts on social media do not mislead when it comes to climate science. Similarly, social media companies such as Meta – which claims to take climate misinformation seriously on its platforms – must review and take appropriate action against The Epoch Times for any breaches of their rules.

Global Witness is calling on:

• The ASA to open an investigation into whether The Epoch Times breaches the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code and, if so, to ban these adverts
• Social media platforms to investigate whether any advertising or monetised content that The Epoch Times or related entities may have run on their platforms breaches their policies.

A spokesperson for The Epoch Times said that scientists have always differed in their opinion on climate change and that “To ban different opinions does not help a civilized open society and erodes freedom of speech.” However, climate change is a fact, not an opinion, and advertising rules in the UK and elsewhere require ads to be truthful. They also provided links to their rebuttals of other media coverage about them – see here, here, here and here.

A spokesperson for Meta said “Following an investigation, we have blocked Epoch Times London’s ability to post adverts for repeatedly violating our ads policies. We take climate change seriously, which is why we are taking steps to make sure people have access to reliable information while reducing climate misinformation.” They said that they have a large network of fact checkers and that they reject ads that contain content debunked by third-party fact checkers.