In this article, we present the results of a content analysis of a sample of fossil fuel corporations, trade associations, and advocacy groups' ads using Facebook ad services during the election year from January 2020 to January 2021. Drawing on Habermas Theory of the Public Sphere, we argue that these climate obstruction organizations used big data to 1) disseminate discourses of delay and 2) target specific user categories on this platform. Using a re-developed typology by Miller and Lellis (2016) used by fossil fuel companies to describe the messages presented to stakeholders and the public, we found that different organizations used these messages to reinforce pre-existing beliefs on the importance of fossil fuels. In doing so, these organizations could use echo chambers to reassert their interests in the public voice and support standards of behavior that rely on fossil fuels to protect their industries. Moreover, these advertisements represent the evolving misinformation playbook from climate obstruction organizations that require further attention and consideration when assessing Facebook policies on misinformation, misleading claims and voluntarily responding to this misinformation without further regulation.
Description
Climate Obstruction and Facebook Advertising: How a Sample of Climate Obstruction Organizations Use social media to Disseminate Discourses of Delay (2022) – The very purpose of what social media could achieve in a democracy has vanished or did not exist so far that capital forces have used it to facilitate and shape the public view on fossil fuel use. This means that obstruction actors can use messaging that appeal to people’s everyday life to mitigate their concerns over climate change and transform the perceptions of these industries as supporting solutions to the problem, continuing business as usual. This practice can be considered greenwashing, where the public see images of an industry that is part of the environmentally positive solution to the climate crisis. As greenwashing is in the eye of the beholder, the response is to potentially accept this solution and reinforces the hegemony of fossil fuels.
Abstract