Twitter bans ads that contradict science on climate change

BERLIN –

Twitter has announced that it will not allow advertisers to advertise on its site if they deny climate change science consensus. This is similar to a Google policy.

The company stated that ads shouldn’t distract from the important conversations about climate crisis. said in a statement outlining its new policy Friday.

The change did not affect the content of users’ posts on the social media platform. Facebook was also targeted by groups attempting to make misleading statements about climate change.

Hours before the European Union reached a deal that requires big tech companies to screen their websites more carefully for hate speech, disinformation, and other harmful content, the announcement coincided with Earth Day.

Twitter saidIt will provide further information over the next few months on how it plans provide “reliable, authoritative context for the climate conversations” its users engages in, including from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The UN-backed science panel reports on climate change’s causes and impacts provide the basis of international negotiations to reduce climate change.

The company already had a climate topic on their site, and it offered “pre-bunks,” during last year’s UN Climate Conference to counter misinformation.