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☆ Why Palm Oil Is Still a Big Problem
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Manuela Andreoni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Palm oil — the ubiquitous ingredient for all things spreadable, from toothpaste to ice cream — is now the commodity consumed by Americans that contributes most to the loss of tropical forests. Researchers looked at import data and deforestation rates and found that palm oil bought by Americans may have caused 103,000 acres of deforestation, mostly in Indonesia. I want to focus on palm oil today because we’ve known about this problem for a long time. Palm oil is environmentally destructive, grown on vast plantations after rainforests have been flattened and burned. And after years of hard-won progress, the deforestation associated with palm oil production in Indonesia is ticking up again.

Organizations: Global Witness Locations: Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, That’s, New York City

☆ ‘Bad case of déjà vu’: Oil industry veteran to lead next round of UN climate talks in Azerbaijan
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-08 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Azerbaijan's Minister for ecology and natural resources and formerly an executive at state oil company SOCAR Mukhtar Babayev (C) visits at the Norm cement plant in Baku, on February 23, 2023. Azerbaijan named on January 5, 2024, Mukhtar Babayev minister to preside over the November 2024 COP29 meeting, in Baku, on January 6, 2024. A former executive of Azerbaijan's state-owned oil and gas firm SOCAR has been picked to lead U.N. climate talks in Baku later this year, prompting critics to decry a "bad case of déjà vu." It means that a minister with vast experience in oil and gas will lead negotiations at the U.N.'s biggest and most important annual climate conference for the second consecutive year. Campaign group Global Witness said Babayev's appointment as the person to lead COP29 discussions was a "bad case of déjà vu."

Persons: SOCAR Mukhtar Babayev, Mukhtar, decry, Mukhtar Babayev, Babayev, Jaber, COP28, Alice Harrison, Harrison Organizations: Norm, United, Emirates, Abu, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Global, United Nations, CNBC Locations: Baku, Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan's, Sultan Al, Dubai, Abu Dhabi

☆ COP28: Fossil fuel industry has nearly quadrupled registrations at climate summit since last year, watchdog report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The report was not able to count how many fossil fuel representatives are actually in attendance, though it has shown registration numbers have been increasing over the years. COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, also an oil executive, has argued the fossil fuel industry should be involved in the summit. The analysis from the coalition, which this year organized under the name Kick Big Polluters Out, looked at the provisional list of COP participants to identify registrants with self-declared ties to fossil fuel companies or organizations with fossil fuel interests or foundations owned or controlled by a fossil fuel company. “The hallways and negotiating rooms of this climate conference are flooded with the largest number of fossil fuel lobbyists ever,” said Lili Fuhr, director of the fossil fuel energy program at the Center for International Environmental Law. Governments must “remain focused on delivering an outcome that supports and mandates a full phase out of fossil fuels while protecting public policy-making from fossil fuel interests,” she told CNN.

Persons: Sultan Al Jaber, ”, Lili Fuhr, Al Jaber Organizations: CNN, United Arab Emirates, Global, Dubai, United Nations, Center for International Environmental Law Locations: Dubai, Brazil, Egypt, COP27, COP28

☆ Climate: The UAE is hosting the world’s biggest annual summit. It’s also planning a massive fossil fuel expansion
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Angela Dewan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

The flurry of forest conservation deals with Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Liberia and Tanzania were announced in the months ahead of the annual United Nations’ COP28 climate summit, being hosted this year in December by the United Arab Emirates. The annual climate summit is where global leaders and negotiators from nearly 200 countries will convene to decide how and when to ramp down fossil fuel use. Its parent company, Global Carbon Investments, has already agreed to transfer $1.5 billion to Zimbabwe in “pre-financing for carbon credits.” That’s more than the country spends on education and childcare, which combined are Zimbabwe’s biggest national expense. Minimum Emissions” slogan is a viable climate solution, even as global temperatures soar and scientists press for rapid fossil fuel cuts. Ironically, COP28 could be the arena that transforms ADNOC into a global oil major.

Persons: CNN —, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, —, Sultan Al Jaber —, Al Jaber, ”, Sultan Al Jaber, Callaghan O'Hare, Reuters Al Jaber, ADNOC, Jamie Henn, It’s, Henn, “, Philip Morris, ” Henn, Renat Heuberger, Zinyange Auntony, Julia Jones, ’ ” Justin Kenrick, ” Patrick Galey, “ ADNOC, COP28, Bethlehem Feleke Organizations: CNN, Carbon, United Nations, United, Blue, US Department of Commerce, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, US, Reuters, Free Media, Climate Watch, UN, COP28, Global Carbon Investments, Mucheni conservancy, Getty, “, Bangor University, Peoples, Forest Peoples Programme, Shell, BP, Global, Energy Locations: Dubai, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Abu Dhabi, Houston, UN, COP28, Africa, “, Swiss, Mucheni, Binga, AFP, Wales, Azerbaijan, Nairobi

Mendoza, a former fighter for the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, dragged her children back inside the house. In interviews with Reuters, those people recounted how the attacks left conservation projects adrift, with conservationists withdrawing from environmental protection works because of fear of more violence. Municipal data from local environmental authorities and the Colombian Institute of Meteorology (IDEAM) also showed that in the year after each killing, deforestation at a local level was worse than national trends. Santofimio's killing brought his hard-fought conservation project to a halt. In the tree nursery, which stopped work after Santofimio's killing, saplings bask in the dappled sunlight beneath protective nets.

Persons: Duberney Lopez, Jorge Santofimio, PUERTO, Leidy Mendoza, Mendoza, Jorge !, they'd, Susana Muhamad, Muhamad, Colombia's, –, Armando Aroca, Santofimio, Lopez, Kevin Murakami, Comuccom, Aroca, Javier Franciso Parra, Francisco couldn't, Andres Felipe Garcia, Cormacarena, Parra, Garcia, Luisz Martinez, Martinez, La, KfW, Roberto Gomez, Gonzalo Cardona, Sara Ines Lara, Oliver Griffin, Julia Symmes Cobb, Katy Daigle, Claudia Parsons Organizations: Revolutionary Armed Forces, Colombian, Villagers, Reuters, Environment Ministry, Global, Colombian Institute of Meteorology, Comuccom, International Narcotics, Law, Affairs, U.S, National Liberation Army, UN, Programme, Meta, UNDP, Progress, World Wildlife Fund, Security, USAID, Thomson Locations: Colombia, PUERTO GUZMAN, Putumayo, Bogota, La, Meta, La Macarena, Amazonia, Puerto Guzman

☆ Colombia Was Deadliest Country for Environmentalists in 2022 -Advocacy Group
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Sept. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

By Oliver GriffinBOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia was the deadliest country for environmentalists in 2022, with at least 60 environmental and land rights defenders killed there, British advocacy group Global Witness said in a report on Tuesday. Global Witness found at least 177 environmentalists were killed globally last year. The findings returned Colombia to the top of the list of deadliest countries for environmentalists after killings declined in 2021 compared to 2019 and 2020. "The ratification of the Escazu agreement by the Constitutional Court is fundamental," Muhamad said. The only two countries not from Latin America to be included in the 10 most dangerous for environmentalists were the Philippines and Indonesia, Global Witness said.

Persons: Oliver Griffin BOGOTA, Laura Furones, Gustavo Petro, Susana Muhamad, Muhamad, Oliver Griffin, Grant McCool Organizations: Global, Environmental, Constitutional Locations: Colombia, America, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia

REUTERS/Emilie Madi/ Acquire Licensing RightsBOGOTA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Colombia was the deadliest country for environmentalists in 2022, with at least 60 environmental and land rights defenders killed there, British advocacy group Global Witness said in a report on Tuesday. Global Witness found at least 177 environmentalists were killed globally last year. The findings returned Colombia to the top of the list of deadliest countries for environmentalists after killings declined in 2021 compared to 2019 and 2020. Brazil and Mexico were the second and third most deadly countries for environmentalists in 2022, the report found, with at least 34 and 31 killings respectively. The only two countries not from Latin America to be included in the 10 most dangerous for environmentalists were the Philippines and Indonesia, Global Witness said.

Persons: Susana Muhamad, Emilie Madi, Laura Furones, Gustavo Petro, Muhamad, Oliver Griffin, Grant McCool Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, Rights, Global, Environmental, Constitutional, Thomson Locations: Red, el, Sheikh, Egypt, Rights BOGOTA, Colombia, America, Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Indonesia

☆ Oil giant led by COP28 boss to spend an ‘eyewatering’ $1 billion a month on fossil fuels this decade, Global Witness says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

UAE oil giant ADNOC — run by the president of the COP28 climate conference — is expected to spend more than $1 billion every month this decade on fossil fuels, according to new analysis by international NGO Global Witness. It comes ahead of the COP28 climate summit, with Dubai set to host the U.N.'s annual conference from Nov. 30 through to Dec. 12. The person overseeing the talks, Sultan al-Jaber, is chief executive of ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) — one of the world's largest oil and gas firms. His position as both COP28 president and ADNOC CEO caused dismay among civil society groups and U.S. and EU lawmakers, although several government ministers have since defended his appointment. It means that ADNOC is forecast to spend nearly seven times more on fossil fuels through to 2030 than it does on "low-carbon solution" projects.

Persons: Sultan Al Jaber, Sultan al, Jaber Organizations: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, UAE, Global, ADNOC, CNBC Locations: Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Dubai, Paris

☆ Europe's plan to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels by 2027 has a major flaw
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The EU wants to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels by 2027 and has cut its use of piped Russian gas dramatically. Even so, EU countries imported a record amount of Russian LNG this year, per Global Witness. Global Witness projects the EU's Russian LNG purchases in 2023 to total nearly 5.3 billion euros, or $5.75 billion. "Buying Russian gas has the same impact as buying Russian oil. In March, Kadri Simson, the EU's energy commissioner, called on member states to stop buying Russian LNG as it's a "reputational risk."

Persons: Moscow —, Adam Bennett, Bennett, Spain —, Jonathan Noronha, Gant, Kadri Simson, Teresa Ribera Organizations: Service, LNG, Moscow, Global, EU, Russia, Russian, Russian LNG, Commission Locations: Wall, Silicon, Ukraine, Europe, Kpler, China, Japan, South Korea, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain

☆ Big Tech braces for EU Digital Services Act regulations
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Martin Coulter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - More than a dozen of the world's biggest tech companies face unprecedented legal scrutiny, as the European Union's sweeping Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes new rules on content moderation, user privacy and transparency this month. The EU is seen as the global leader in tech regulation, with more wide-ranging pieces of legislation – such as the Digital Markets Act and the AI Act – on the way. For now, the rules only apply to 19 of the largest online platforms, those with more than 45 million users in the EU. Researchers removed the ads before they were published, so no Facebook users saw them. It will soon become obvious if any of the designated companies had "skirted their legal responsibilities," said Hayes.

Persons: –, Kingsley Hayes, Keller Postman, Eko, Meta, TikTok, Zalando, Hayes, Martin Coulter, Josie Kao Organizations: Digital Services, Facebook, Google, Digital Markets, DSA, Reuters, European Commission, Twitter, YouTube, Global, Amazon, Thomson Locations: EU, Europe, Ireland, Luxembourg

CNN —A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar has killed at least 32 people, a local fire services official told CNN on Wednesday. The landslide took place in the remote and mountainous town of Hpakant in the northern state of Kachin on Sunday, said Sa Tay Za of the Hpakant Fire Service Department. Myanmar produces about 70% of the world’s jade and Hpakant is home to some of the world’s biggest and most lucrative jade mines, worth billions of dollars. The group estimated Myanmar’s jade industry was worth about $31 billion in 2014, nearly half of the country’s official GDP that year. More than 160 people died after heavy rain triggered a landslide in a jade mine in Hpakant in 2020.

Persons: CNN —, Sa Tay, Za Organizations: CNN, Fire Service Department, Global, Resource Governance Institute Locations: Myanmar, Hpakant, Kachin, China

☆ Facebook faces new allegations of gender discrimination in its delivery of job ads. Research by human rights group suggests it's a global concern
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Clare Duffy | Carlotta Dotto | Naomi Hirst | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

But Global Witness' research suggests that this results in job ads being targeted to users based on gender stereotypes. And in some cases, human rights advocates say, the biases that appear to be shown by Facebook's ad system may exacerbate other disparities. Global Witness targeted the ads to adult Facebook users of any gender who resided in, or had recently visited, the chosen countries. Certain roles were less strongly skewed — a package delivery job ad, for example, was shown to 38% women users in the Netherlands. In December, Real Women in Trucking filed its EEOC complaint alleging that Facebook's job ads algorithm discriminates based on age and gender.

Persons: Naomi Hirst, Clara Wichmann, Ashley Settle, Settle, Meta, Linde, Ireland —, Caroline Leroy, Blanvillain, Fondation des Femme, Pat de Brún, de Brún, —, Brún, Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, Sandberg, Peter Romer, Friedman, " Romer, Facebook's, Hirst, Meera Senthilingam, Seth Fiegerman, Carlotta Dotto, Carolina Moscoso, Tal Yellin, Damian Prado, David Blood, Gabrielle Smith Organizations: CNN, Facebook, Global, Facebook's, des, UK, Human Rights, Commissioner's, Meta, US, Employment, Commission, Real Women, Trucking, Ad, Ireland, Fondation des, Amnesty, Employment Opportunity Commission, University of Southern, Real, Data Locations: Europe, France, Netherlands, Canada, United States, India, South Africa, United Kingdom, Indonesia, University of Southern California

☆ Replanting the Amazon could slow global warming. Here’s why it’s hard
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +24 min

Milton da Costa Junior nosed his pickup through a remote stretch of the western Brazilian Amazon to check on his babies. Local authorities said the September 2021 incident, which Da Costa outlined in a police report that was reviewed by Reuters, is being investigated. Out of dozens of reforestation initiatives in the country, Rioterra and The Black Jaguar Foundation, a Brazilian-European group, are among the largest. Illegal invaders destroy in hours what it takes Rioterra or Black Jaguar a year to plant. In all, Black Jaguar has signed contracts with 26 farms and planted 326 hectares (806 acres) to date.

Persons: Milton da Costa, Da Costa, Carlos Nobre, Alexis Bastos, Rioterra, ”, Nobre, “, Bastos, Jamari, Dejesus Aparecido Ramos, it’s, ” Bastos, Jair Bolsonaro, Germany –, Bolsonaro, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Black, Ben Valks, Valks, Leandro Silveira, Silveira, São, ” Valks, aren’t, Cristina Banks, Leite, Marcos Mariani, Araguaia, Mariani, Tânia Irres, ” Irres, Regina Molke, I’ll, Clovis, Black Jaguar, Aquaverde, Renato Franklin, “ Ben, ” Franklin, L’Oreal, da Costa, ” Da Costa, da, Spring, Clare Trainor, Catherine Tai, Lais Morais, Ilan Rubens, Lucy Ha, John Emerson, Marla Dickerson Organizations: Milton da Costa Junior, Toyota, Reuters, Black Jaguar Foundation, National Institute for Space Research, Rioterra, Cultural, Environmental Studies, Petrobras, “, Amazon Fund, Environment Ministry, United, United Arab Emirates, São Paulo, Global, Farmers, Brazil’s Central Bank, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, Imperial College London, Santana, Bolsonaro, United Nations, Space Agency, Copernicus, Sentinel Locations: Machadinho, Rondônia, Brazil, Germany, Brazilian, European, Manhattan, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Bastos, Porto Velho, droves, Rio, Black, Itapuã, Oeste, Norway, United Arab, Pará, Caixa, “, Costa, Syria, Paris, Santana, Araguaia’s, Clovis, Regina, United States, South, Geneva, Rio Preto, da Costa

☆ A shadow fleet is helping Russia ship oil around the world. And it's growing
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

London CNN —Russian oil is still finding its way to buyers around the world. Industry insiders estimate the size of that “shadow” fleet at roughly 600 vessels, or about 10% of the global number of large tankers. Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesThe expansion of the shadow fleet highlights the dramatic changes Russia’s war has brought to the global oil market. As a result, an estimated 25 to 35 vessels are being sold per month into the shadow fleet, according to another senior executive at an oil trading firm. There are also questions about who ultimately runs the shadow fleet.

☆ BP posts record 2022 earnings to join Big Oil profit bonanza
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The British energy giant posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $27.7 billion for 2022. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected net profit of $27.6 billion for full-year 2022. BP said its previous annual profit record was $26.3 billion in 2008. For the fourth quarter, BP posted net profit of $4.8 billion, narrowly beating analyst expectations of $4.7 billion. Before that, U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil reported a $56 billion profit for 2022, marking a historic high for the Western oil industry.

☆ Chevron annual profit hits record but Q4 miss hits shares
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Sabrina Valle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The second largest U.S. oil producer's adjusted net profit for 2022 exceeded its previous record set in 2011 by about $10 billion. High prices from strong demand and shortages since Russia's invasion of Ukraine position Western energy firms to show a combined $200 billion profit for the year, according to analysts. It left global oil and gas production guidance for this year at flat to up 3%. FOURTH-QUARTER MISSIn the final quarter, Chevron posted adjusted earnings of $7.9 billion, or $4.09 per share, below analysts' estimate of a $4.38 per share profit. Its refining business picked up and almost tripled results from the previous year as international fuel production delivered stronger margins.

☆ Facebook approved ads promoting violence in wake of Brazil riots, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Martin Coulter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoLONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Facebook approved a series of online ads promoting violence in Brazil, days after protesters ransacked government buildings, according to a new report. However, four days after the uprising, human rights organisation Global Witness found Facebook was still allowing ads containing death threats and other calls to violence on its platform. Using fake accounts, the group submitted 16 bogus ads to run on the platform, 14 of which were approved for publication. Global Witness said it withdrew the ads from Facebook before any other users could see them. “In the aftermath of the violence in Brasilia, Facebook said they were ‘actively monitoring’ the situation and removing content in violation of their policies.

☆ Fossil-fuel companies have more people at the UN's climate summit than the 10 countries most affected by climate change do combined
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Fossil-fuel interests are fighting for natural gas at the United Nations' COP27 climate summit. But natural gas is mostly methane — a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide — and it leaks. One-third of the fossil fuel lobbyists Global Witness identified are registered as part of national delegations, according to Dominic Kavakeb, a spokesperson for Global Witness. Fossil fuel influence threatens to undermine progress on one of the most powerful, immediate climate solutions: ending human methane emissions. While methane's consequences are severe, the good news is that countries and industries can quickly slow climate change by cutting methane emissions.

☆ Africa is hosting the UN climate summit. It's also home to 3 oil-and-gas deals announced in just two weeks.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

During the COP27 event, three oil-and-gas deals in Africa have been announced. In the past two weeks — essentially the time of the COP27 summit — three oil-and-gas deals were announced for Africa alone, in Egypt, Nigeria, and Tanzania. That demand is evident even in announcements that purportedly support renewable energy. Plus, the projects are more expensive than building out renewable energy like solar. "If we really want to improve the lives of people, we need to invest in community renewable energy," Elmaawi said.

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - African nations must be allowed to develop their fossil fuel resources to help lift their pepole out of poverty, governments said at the COP27 talks in Egypt, which welcomed leaders of oil and gas companies sidelined at previous talks. African nations said wealthy countries had failed to deliver promised funding that would help them to expand clean energy instead of exploiting their fossil fuel resources. Some 636 fossil fuel lobbyists were registered to attend COP27, another report from a group of organisations that analysed the U.N.'s provisional list of attendees found. That's 100 lobbyists more than attended the Glasgow COP26 summit last year, the group said, lamenting what it described as "rise in the influence of the fossil fuel industry". The analysis also counted delegation members acting on behalf of their country's fossil fuel industry.

☆ ‘A twisted joke’: UN’s flagship climate summit sees sharp jump in fossil fuel industry delegates
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The sharp jump in attendees associated with some of the world's biggest polluting oil and gas giants at COP27 is thought to reflect the rise in the influence of the fossil fuel industry to shape the debate. SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — More than 600 fossil fuel industry delegates have been registered to attend the COP27 climate talks in Egypt, according to analysis from campaign groups, reflecting an increase of over 25% from last year. The sharp jump in attendees associated with some of the world's biggest polluting oil and gas giants at the U.N.'s flagship climate conference is thought to reflect the rise in the influence of the fossil fuel industry to shape the debate. An analysis of data from the U.N.'s provisional list of named attendees by campaign groups Corporate Accountability, Corporate Europe Observatory and Global Witness found that 636 fossil fuel lobbyists had been registered to take part in the talks. It means that more fossil fuel lobbyists are represented at the two-week-long summit than any single country besides the United Arab Emirates, which has 1,070 delegates registered compared to 176 last year.

☆ How social media platforms plan to fight Election Day misinformation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty ImagesSocial media platforms including Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Google's YouTube are readying themselves for another heated Election Day this week. The company is once again banning new political ads in the week before the election, as it did in 2020. Political ads, including information on how much money was behind them and how much they were viewed, are included in the company's transparency report. The NYU and Global Witness study found YouTube performed the best out of the platforms it tested in blocking ads with election misinformation. WATCH: The messy business of content moderation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

☆ Social media failing to keep up with Brazil electoral disinformation, rights groups say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Steven Grattan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SAO PAULO, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Human rights groups and researchers have raised concerns in Brazil that social media platforms are failing to effectively police disinformation ahead of a highly polarized presidential vote on Sunday. Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) bolstered measures this month to tackle disinformation around the election, especially on video sharing platforms. "Social media platforms are failing Brazil's voters," said Deborah Brown, a senior researcher on digital rights at Human Rights Watch, who called the platforms and messaging apps "extremely important" spaces for electoral debate. "That space has been riddled with electoral disinformation, such as baseless allegations of electoral fraud," she said. "Social media companies bear some responsibility for the country being on tenterhooks about this year's election," Friedrich said.

☆ Facebook and TikTok are approving ads with ‘blatant’ misinformation about voting in midterms, researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

In an experiment, the researchers submitted 20 ads with inaccurate claims to Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. TikTok approved 90% of ads that contained blatantly false or misleading information, the researchers found. The researchers withdrew the ads after going through the approval process, if they were approved, so the ads containing misinformation were not shown to users. Last month, TikTok took additional steps to safeguard the veracity of political content ahead of the midterms. Google also took steps in September to protect against election misinformation, elevating trustworthy information and displaying it more prominently across services including search and YouTube.

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