Pinterest announced it will begin banning and removing any content regarding climate change that is deemed to be false.
The news is an expansion of the social media site’s established community guidelines regarding misinformation and disinformation.
“Pinterest is rolling out a new climate misinformation policy to keep false and misleading claims around climate change off the platform,” the company wrote in its April 6 announcement. “Our new policy makes Pinterest the only major digital platform to have clearly defined guidelines against false or misleading climate change information, including conspiracy theories, across content and ads.”
The site will remove content that “denies the existence or impacts of climate change, the human influence on climate change, or that climate change is backed by scientific consensus” or “false or misleading content about climate change solutions that contradict well-established scientific consensus.”
Pinterest will also not tolerate the misrepresentation of climate change data present in a manner “to erode trust in climate science and experts” or the distribution of false or misleading information regarding “public safety emergencies including natural disasters and extreme weather events.”
“Pinterest believes in cultivating a space that’s trusted and truthful for those using our platform,” said Pinterest’s Head of Policy Sarah Bromma. “The expanded climate misinformation policy is yet another step in Pinterest’s journey to combat misinformation and create a safe space online.”
“Climate disinformation on digital platforms is a serious threat to the public support needed to solve the climate crisis,” affirmed Michael Khoo, the Climate Disinformation Co-Chair at Friends of the Earth. Pinterest partnered with the organization to create the new community standards that define climate misinformation.
The social media platform has previously purged content deemed to be harmful or controversial. In 2019, Pinterest removed all images of plantations, often used as wedding venues, after a California-based racial justice group contacted the company.
“Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things,” a Pinterest spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
Weight-loss ads, anti-COVID-19 vaccine content, and political ads have also previously been blocked by the site.
The company was founded in March of 2010 and had over 478 million users as of June of 2021, with more than 50% residing outside the United States. As of last year, the platform had an estimated value of $49.13 billion.
