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Climate scientists flee Twitter [to Mastodon] as hostility surges (www.france24.com)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by otter@lemmy.ca to c/technology@lemmy.world

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EDIT: I didn't notice in the original post, the article is from 2023

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19707239

Researchers have documented an explosion of hate and misinformation on Twitter since the Tesla billionaire took over in October 2022 -- and now experts say communicating about climate science on the social network on which many of them rely is getting harder.

Policies aimed at curbing the deadly effects of climate change are accelerating, prompting a rise in what experts identify as organised resistance by opponents of climate reform.

Peter Gleick, a climate and water specialist with nearly 99,000 followers, announced on May 21 he would no longer post on the platform because it was amplifying racism and sexism.

While he is accustomed to "offensive, personal, ad hominem attacks, up to and including direct physical threats", he told AFP, "in the past few months, since the takeover and changes at Twitter, the amount, vituperativeness, and intensity of abuse has skyrocketed".

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[-] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago

Did you use Twitter much before then? Some people just don't like the format. I use it to get updates on some things, but I don't use it as much as Lemmy (or Reddit before that).

If you did use Twitter, perhaps the content you followed back then still didn't make its way to Mastodon (or it went to bluesky/threads?)

Last thing you could try is following more people. I find that fediverse platforms need you to seek out content more actively, while old profit driven social media platforms were constantly seeking engagement. On top of that there just isn't as much content on any of the new platforms compared to the older ones.

That all being said, the quality of the content is equal or better every time

this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024

1208 points (98.1% liked)

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