Research/Study
Facebook fails to apply fact-check labels to “energy independence” misinformation
Published
As the global economy continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, insufficient oil supply and the war in Ukraine have increased the price of crude oil, and gas prices have followed suit. On Facebook, right-wing pages are pushing a false narrative of American “energy independence” to shift the blame for high gas prices to the Biden administration and promote an ineffective, anti-science, pro-fossil fuel agenda. Misinformation on this topic is spreading on the platform, and the majority of posts go unflagged by Facebook’s third-party fact-checking partners.
Facebook claims to reduce the distribution of posts with climate change misinformation through its fact-checking partnerships, though it does not remove climate change misinformation posts unless they violate its Community Standards. These organizations -- certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter -- can label misinformation, and posts with such labels are apparently pushed lower in the news feed. Facebook also says that pages, groups, or accounts that repeatedly share misinformation can face penalties, such as losing the ability to advertise or monetize posts or being tagged with pop-up warnings indicating that the account often shares misinformation. However, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and numerous media accountability reports have revealed that not only is Facebook’s policy incoherent and ineffective — as many posts go unlabeled — but the platform’s algorithm also appears to push users toward climate change denial content, pages, and groups.
In our latest study, Media Matters looked at Facebook pages that consistently spread climate or energy-related misinformation from September 1, 2021, through April 1, 2022, and found these pages were overwhelmingly ideologically right-leaning. We identified the 100 top Facebook posts with the most interactions (likes, comments, shares) that contained climate change and energy-related misinformation and found many posts used the energy independence narrative to push misinformation about gas prices.
Key findings
- The top 100 Facebook posts with the most interactions (likes, comments, shares) that contain climate change and energy-related misinformation earned 5.2 million interactions.
- Only 2 posts had a misinformation fact-checking label for failing to provide context and misusing the term “energy independence.” These posts earned 176,000 interactions combined.
- Among the top 100 posts, 37 other posts made similarly false arguments about “energy independence,” yet none were labeled. These posts earned a total of 1.5 million interactions.
- High gas prices were the key driver of misinformation for 41 out of the top 100 posts. These posts accounted for 1.8 million interactions.
- Among these, 14 posts (34%) argued for increased fossil fuel extraction, production, and infrastructure in addition to misusing the term “energy independence.”