The site's algorithm can push some people towards disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Facebook pushes climate sceptics towards increasingly extreme disinformation and conspiracy groups, a human-rights body's research suggests.
A report released Wednesday by Global Witness found Facebook's algorithm amplified doubts rather than nudging people towards reliable information.Researchers created two users - climate sceptic "Jane" and "John" who followed established scientific bodies.Jane soon saw content denying man-made climate change, including pages calling it a "hoax" and attacking measures to mitigate its effects.
Examples included posts accusing the "green movement" of "enslaving humanity" and calling the United Nations "an authoritarian regime with less credibility than Bugs Bunny".The group is part of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington-based libertarian think tank against the consensus on climate science.
Meanwhile, John's account began by liking the page of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , the United Nations scientific body.As the simulation continued, Facebook began to recommend even more extreme and fringe content to Jane, including conspiracy theories, such as ones about "chem trails" - false claims condensation left by planes contains chemical agents that can control the weather.
The Facebook algorithm has been shown to send users down rabbit holes - where content becomes increasingly fringe as users engage with posts on a particular topic - in other areas, such as
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