Climate scientists flee Twitter as hostility surges
www.france24.com
Scientists suffering insults and mass-spam are abandoning Twitter for alternative social networks as hostile climate-change denialism surges on the platform following Elon Musk's takeover.

EDIT: I didn’t notice in the original post, the article is from 2023

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19707239

Researchers have documented an explosion of hate and misinformation on Twitter since the Tesla billionaire took over in October 2022 – and now experts say communicating about climate science on the social network on which many of them rely is getting harder.

Policies aimed at curbing the deadly effects of climate change are accelerating, prompting a rise in what experts identify as organised resistance by opponents of climate reform.

Peter Gleick, a climate and water specialist with nearly 99,000 followers, announced on May 21 he would no longer post on the platform because it was amplifying racism and sexism.

While he is accustomed to “offensive, personal, ad hominem attacks, up to and including direct physical threats”, he told AFP, “in the past few months, since the takeover and changes at Twitter, the amount, vituperativeness, and intensity of abuse has skyrocketed”.

  • fpslem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    What sort of stuff do you like? Maybe some folks can make some good recommendations to jump-start a more interesting experience.

    Recommendations and boosts from other users are how I’ve discovered interesting people there, and at this point, my feed feels just as full as my old twitter feed.

    If you like news, a lot of breaking news is happening on Mastodon much more accurately and faster than on Twitter. There are a LOT of publications on there now, here are a few off the top of my head:

    • Polygon (@polygon@mastodon.social)
    • The Conversation (@TheConversation@newsie.social)
    • The Intercept (@theintercept@jouna.host)
    • Voice of America (@VOANews@mastodon.social)
    • Ars Technica (@arstechnica@mastodon.social)
    • Semafor (@Semafor@flipboard.com)
    • Kotaku (@Kotaku@flipboard.com)
    • The Christian Science Monitor (@csmonitor@flipboard.com)
    • Fast Company (@FastCompany@flipboard.com)
    • The 19th (@19thnews@flipboard.com)
    • Vox (@Vox@flipboard.com)

    There are a lot more local news sources too, so depending on where you live, you can probably follow news for your specific area. The account @FediFollows@social.growyourown.services regularly bundles up follow suggestions for different regions, interests, and topics. If you go that account and search for a hashtag (i.e., #texas) you’ll get a lot of active and high-quality local accounts to follow.