New research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has revealed that social media platforms enable and profit from false information on extreme weather events and misleading claims about the impact of climate change.
The new research, launched on July 22nd, shows how social media platforms amplified conspiracy theorists while sidelining vital emergency information in the wake of recent extreme weather events like the Texas floods and LA fires.
The report examines various themes in false or misleading posts about extreme weather, such as claims about the cause, claims about disaster relief aid, claims about emergency response, claims about the impact of climate change, and claims about political response.
According to the report, the misleading content has led to increased risks to public safety, impeded emergency response, and eroded public trust in disaster relief efforts, putting lives at risk.
“While families mourned and first responders combed through wreckage after climate disasters in Texas and California, social media companies shamelessly exploited these catastrophes for profit. The rapid spread of climate conspiracies online isn’t accidental, it’s baked into a business model that profits from outrage and division,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH.
“LA County officials told me that after the fires earlier this year, scammers placed social media ads impersonating federal emergency aid agencies to steal victims’ personal information. When distraught people can’t distinguish real help from online deception, platforms become complicit in the suffering of innocent people.”
In a review of 100 viral posts on each of the three major platforms during recent extreme weather events, including the LA fires and Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the research found that Meta (Facebook & Instagram) lacked fact-checks or Community Notes on 98% of posts analyzed while X lacked fact-checks or Community Notes on 99% of posts analyzed.
The report noted that YouTube failed entirely, with zero fact-checks or Community Notes on 100% of posts analyzed.
“It is appalling to see how climate science deniers and conspiracy theorists catalogued in DeSmog’s database are manipulating extreme weather events to disseminate their fact-free fallacies. However, perhaps even more shocking is that social media companies are actively profiting from the disinformation that spreads like wildfire on their platforms,” said Sam Bright, DeSmog’s UK deputy editor.
“This report unequivocally shows that climate disinformation costs lives. As extreme weather events become more and more frequent, these falsehoods will only get more dangerous.”
Recent disasters revealed a dangerous pattern where falsehoods outpaced facts in weather disasters. Following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in late 2024 and the LA fires in early 2025, conspiracy theories flooded social media—baseless claims that hurricanes were “geo-engineered weapons” and wildfires were ignited by “government lasers” spread faster than updates from emergency officials and reliable news outlets. Lies that migrants were prioritized for aid incited public anger, while scammers exploited survivors through ads impersonating federal assistance programs. In one alarming case, a man influenced by online lies was arrested for threatening FEMA personnel at a relief site.