A New Report Highlights the Spread of Spanish-Language Climate Misinformation

The intensifying focus on recent extreme weather events has inadvertently given rise to an increase in Spanish-language disinformation and misinformation about climate change. Researchers are highlighting the spread of false information through social media platforms, especially surrounding news about extreme weather occurrences and government policies related to climate change.

A report released by Media Matters, a left-leaning media nonprofit watchdog, shed light on the dissemination of Spanish-language climate change conspiracy theories on TikTok ahead of a U.N. summit focused on climate-related development goals in September. The report revealed that Spanish-language TikTok posts denied climate change and propagated false beliefs that it's a hoax. Some posts even referenced fictitious weather control programs, further fueling conspiracy theories.

These posts often featured clips resembling news programs, featuring supposed experts or studies that challenged established scientific facts about climate change. Some of these clips were sourced from Russia’s state-controlled international TV network, which went unlabeled despite TikTok's policies regarding such sources.

Unlike the well-established network of U.S.-based English-language social media accounts spreading climate denialism narratives, the Spanish-language disinformation network appears to be more diffuse. It's mostly comprised of accounts from Spain and Latin America, which engage in a broader right-wing agenda and rely heavily on translated content originally generated in the U.S. in English.

Spanish-language misinformation often goes unnoticed by social media platforms' content moderation policies, creating a concerning discrepancy between English and Spanish content enforcement. This issue has been highlighted in Media Matters reports examining the phenomenon on TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.

Despite the platform's content moderation policies and guidelines, which include removing climate change misinformation, such false content continues to be posted and shared on TikTok. The platform relies on Spanish-speaking moderators, experts, and fact-checkers to address misinformation, and users can report false content through TikTok’s misinformation reporting tool.