
This year TikTok promised to be tougher when it comes to climate change denial. Nevertheless, a BBC inquiry uncovered one video that has been seen millions of times, and it discovered the firm is finding it difficult to prevent the dissemination of false information on this matter on the app.
If you have been searching up "climate change" on TikTok recently, it is likely you have seen a video of Dan Peña, who is a widely-known "business success coach" with thousands of followers on social media.
During the 2017 London premiere of a documentary about Mr Peña, a video was captured that depicted an animated exchange between him and someone in the audience.
When posed the question of what "the people with the money" intend to do with regard to climate change, he answers that the monetary organizations and banks are aware it will not become a reality.
He claims, without offering any reliable proof: "This is the biggest scam perpetrated against humanity in the current century."
When approached by the BBC, Mr Peña held his earlier remarks, claiming that climate change is a "historical norm" throughout millennia and not a novel occurrence. He doubted whether it posed a "real danger" and furthermore the capability of climate change activists to do anything effective to curb emissions from China.
The scientific evidence is conclusive: human activity is causing temperatures to increase swiftly, leading to drastic climate change and endangering all areas of human life.
Although Mr Peña's assertions are at odds with the scientific evidence, this video has been edited and reposted from different TikTok accounts numerous times, with more than nine million views as a result.
TikTok unveiled revised community guidelines in April which prohibit material that counters well-established scientific consensus about climate change.
Nevertheless, the video involving Mr Peña is far from being a lone case: the BBC revealed 365 separate videos in English that deny the fact of climate change created by humans.
TikTok itself considers climate change denial to be "harmful misinformation". We utilized the capabilities available to any TikTok consumer to submit those videos to the platform in that classification. We then decided to allow for a minimum of one day to discover if they would be eliminated.
The company failed to delete close to 95% of the posts we identified - videos which, having been seen nearly 30 million times, appeared to be garnering much interest.
TikTok has told the BBC that efforts are being made to support conversations about climate issues, and that it is collaborating with fact-checkers to address false information.
The company highlighted that, when people look for videos regarding climate change, they will be given a link to a United Nations site about the subject.
The video of Mr Peña highlights the speed at which false assertions can be propagated on TikTok, according to Roshan Salgado D'Arcy, a science communicator who specializes in refuting widespread clips concerning climate change circulating across social media.
No measures are in place to guarantee the accuracy of the data.
The issue is not restricted to videos about climate change denial in English on TikTok; according to BBC Monitoring, there are also multiple videos in other languages such as Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian that attempt to refute the effects of climate change.
Dr Doug McNeall, a scientist from the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, expresses that as individuals involved in social media, it is simple to misconceive the degree of confidence we have regarding climate change.
Inaccurate information can have a detrimental effect on our dialogue regarding solutions to climate change.
TikTok has acknowledged the problem and, as part of Earth month in April, made the decision to take down material that contradicts the fundamentals of climate science.
In a blog post published then, it stated that certain content, such as denying climate change or the factors that are responsible for it, were considered rule-breaking.
The production of videos such as Mr Peña's sparks debate about how well the fresh policy is being put into action.
According to Jennie King, the head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (a UK counter-extremism think tank), when rules are not used in a consistent, accurate and fair manner, they cease to be relevant.
Ms King indicated that this motivates people to gain an unfair advantage of the system, as they understand they will not suffer any consequences.
Paul Scully MP, the minister for technology and the digital economy, informed the BBC that the government's Online Safety Bill would ensure serious attention was paid to social media platforms' responsibility to combat disinformation.
Upon disclosing our research to TikTok, 65 accounts disseminating misinformation regarding climate change were permanently terminated in violation of the platform's rules.
The corporation also took down most of the videos which were still accessible - comprising of a few that featured Dan Peña's 2017 discourse.
However, at the present moment, numerous versions of the video where Dan Peña proclaims climate change to be the "biggest deception" are still available on the application.
Dr McNeall of the Met Office applauds TikTok's attempts to combat falsehoods, yet he is uncertain if this is a war they will be able to triumph in.
He expresses joy at the prospect of being challenged as a scientist.
We should put our effort into disseminating accurate climate science data instead of merely eradicating the material we disapprove of.
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