Facebook has plans for climate lies

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( Hey everyone, it’s Sarah Frier. In the geographic heart of the tech industry Wednesday, it was hard to think of anything except the orange skies, dark and tinted by wildfire smoke. The image software on iPhones failed to capture the dystopian hue, or the feeling of being surrounded by it. Silicon Valley workers tweeted that it felt like night time, or a perpetual sunset, or a scene from "Blade Runner 2049." It marked the fourth week of severe fire and ash in the Western U.S. The conversation shifted from the already-apocalyptic pandemic to another global public health disaster: climate change. For those who don’t know, this is not what California is usually like. The first time I smelled smoke in my San Francisco apartment, in 2015, I imagined something nearby was on fire—not that it was happening miles north of the city. I turned on an air purifier, which I’d purchased for my partner’s allergies, never expecting it would be necessary for anything else. The climate disaster is undeniable to those who have experienced its harms, and a political talking point for the rest. Facebook is full of misinformation on the topic, which, when noticed and reported by users, is sent to the company’s third-party fact-checkers. Over the summer, a nonprofit called C02 Coalition, which claimed that carbon dioxide created by humans was beneficial for the planet, was banned from advertising on Facebook after too many fact violations. The group successfully appealed its ban, and had the fact-checks labels on its posts removed. Facebook said that it considered such posts to be opinions, ineligible for fact-checking, causing a miniature scandal when the checker, Climate Feedback, [spoke out](. "We don't believe that articles in an opinion section should be immune from fact-checking,” Climate Feedback science editor Scott Johnson wrote in an email to Bloomberg. Facebook also doesn’t take the additional step of removing misinformation on the climate, because the company has ruled that such posts don’t cause imminent harm to human health. But, in the aggregate, they do. Facebook has recently re-evaluated its approach to climate misinformation, according to spokesman Andy Stone. The company is working on a climate information center, which will display information from scientific sources. Stone said Facebook isn’t ready to officially announce anything, but it’s easy to imagine what this might look like. Facebook has already devised centers for factual information about Covid-19, and about voting and the upcoming election, both of which it has promoted heavily on its site. The info center approach would put less pressure on evaluating each individual post, in favor of directing users to what they need to know more about generally. It could plausibly be more effective than the fact-checking process, which sometimes takes days or weeks to complete, long after a claim has gone viral. Of course, it won’t help address individual disputed claims. In the meantime, to get the general idea of what’s going on, anyone in Silicon Valley can look out the window. —[Sarah Frier](mailto:sfrier1@bloomberg.net) If you read one thing Apple is going to make a special face mask for employees. The company's engineering and Industrial Design teams, the same groups that work on devices such as the iPhone and iPad, are creating a [new washable face mask](, Bloomberg reports. Unlike some other major Silicon Valley companies, hardware is a central feature of Apple's business, and the company has been more eager to get workers back in offices than others. Sponsored Content by SmartAsset™️ [7 Mistakes You’ll Definitely Make Hiring A Financial Advisor]( Working with a financial advisor is a crucial part of any retirement plan, but most people make these avoidable mistakes when hiring one. [Learn how these tips can help you plan to retire comfortably.](  And here’s what you need to know in global technology news Microsoft's next Xbox has a release date: Nov. 10, with a [$499.99 price tag](. Nintendo is boosting Switch production by [another 20%](. The Long-Term Stock Exchange, created by "The Lean Startup" author Eric Ries, is [up and running]( as of Wednesday. Chasing Amazon, Walmart is [testing drone delivery](. The drones are taking off from a landing pad near stores in Fayetteville, North Carolina and can carry 6.6 pounds. Sony Music, the world’s second-largest music company, plans to release [nearly 40 podcasts this year]( and is developing more than 100 original programs.  Like Fully Charged? | [Get unlimited access to Bloomberg.com](, where you'll find trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters.  You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Fully Charged newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022