Twitter to ban ads denying scientific consensus on climate change

Berlin: Twitter, the micro-blogging social media platform, has informed that it will not allow any advertisers on it who deny the scientific consensus on climate change, similar to a policy Google had already taken, AP reports.

In a statement on Friday, Twitter said that ads shouldn't play down the important conversations about the climatic crisis. However, the company has not clarified how the new policy would affect users' posts on it. Twitter, along with Facebook, were being targeted by some to promote fake claims regarding climate change.

The company said that it would release more information on its plans to provide "reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations", in the coming months. The information will include those from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPC), it said.

IPC is a science panel backed by the United Nations which had published reports on the causes and effects of climate change and provided the base for international negotiations to restrain climate change.

Twitter makes the announcement on "World Earth Day", hours ahead of the European Union making a deal mandating large tech companies to screen their platforms more closely for harmful content like hate speech, disinformation etc.

Twitter, which has a dedicated climate change topic on its site, had offered what it called "pre-bunks" during the UN climate conference in 2021 to counter misinformation regarding climate change.