Facebook suspended more than 200 accounts belonging to environmental and Indigenous groups Saturday, casting doubt on the company’s stated commitments to addressing the climate crisis.
The suspensions came days after Facebook launched a Climate Science Information Center to correct widely-shared posts that spread disinformation about climate change, The Guardian pointed out. The same week, Facebook also pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. But the activist groups expressed doubt about Facebook’s priorities, saying they were locked out of their accounts days before a planned protest against a fossil fuel company building a pipeline through Indigenous land.
“Actions speak louder than words and once again Facebook has taken actions that are in stark contrast to public statements from the company,” senior corporate campaigner at Greenpeace USA Elizabeth Jardim told The Guardian. “The recent bans targeting people fighting to save their communities from climate change and the continued exploitation of fossil fuel companies show us that when push comes to shove, Facebook will side with polluters at the cost of their users’ trying to organize.”
Greenpeace USA reported it was one of the suspended groups, along with others including Rainforest Action Network, Presente.org and Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidimt’en Territory. The groups were all co-hosts of an event in May targeting the company KKR & Co. Inc., which is the new majority funder of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline that the Wet’suwet’en community is fighting to keep off its unceded land in British Columbia. Another online protest against the company had been scheduled for Monday. Read more…
