Russia-Backed Media Group’s Climate Lies on Social Media
Twitter, YouTube put millions of eyes on Tenet Media’s climate disinformationNYC – Friends of the Earth, a member of the Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition (CAAD), released a memo documenting the climate denial narratives spread by content creators backed by Tenet Media, the company currently under investigation by the Department of Justice for taking $10 million as part of a Russian influence operation.
Researchers from the Dewey Square Group examined posts from 69 total websites and social accounts belonging to Tenet Media, its founders, and six content creators named on their website, dated between September 2023 and September 2024. Tenet-affiliated accounts have at least 16 million followers and subscribers as social media platforms were complicit in growing the audiences for these accounts, and still allow the end product of the allegedly Russia-funded influence operation to continue reaching viewers.
Key findings from the memo:
- Climate disinformation from Tenet Media’s accounts and associated content creators had over 23.5 million views and over 1 million individual engagements.
- Climate content from the allegedly Russia-funded operation is indistinguishable from other far-right and fossil-fuel backed disinformation, from standard denial, slur-laced attacks on intersectional climate, race and LGBTQ+ advocacy efforts, to COVID-19 and related conspiracy theories, to internal US policy debates on gas stoves.
- X/Twitter was the most prominent platform for this content, with over 19 million views, 290,000 likes and 144,000 retweets.
- YouTube allowed and still allows for the monetization of Tenet-associated content on their platform, even after Tenet’s connection to the Russian influence operation was revealed. Climate disinformation on YouTube from Tenet-associated content creators had nearly 4 million views in the past year.
“It’s disturbing that YouTube and X are platforming and profiting from Russian-backed climate deniers who are influencing US policy,” said Erika Seiber, Climate Disinformation Spokesperson at Friends of the Earth and CAAD, “Social media companies’ role in amplifying content that obstructs our ability to address the climate crisis cannot be understated. We should not allow companies like X and Google to profit from drowning out climate science with Russia-backed, fossil-fueled conspiracies. There are clearly foreign leaders who would love to see US climate policy fail, and these platforms are lending them a helping hand.”
Communications contact: Erika Seiber, [email protected]