<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/farmers-for-climate-action-hit-by-social-media-attack-says-fake-news-drowns-out-rural-voices/>
"Farmers for Climate Action was hit by a coordinated and sophisticated social
media attack earlier this year, which it says was designed to mislead people
into thinking farmers are opposed to renewables.
Approximately 66 fake social media accounts flooded the group’s pages with
comments attacking Farmers for Climate Action and renewable energy ahead of the
federal election.
The “sophisticated, coordinated attacks” were led by accounts which looked like
they were real farmers and included conspicuous Australiana, such as vegemite
and flags.
“These campaigns appear to be part of a deliberate strategy to create a false
perception of opposition to climate action within agricultural communities,”
Farmers for Climate Action told the Senate inquiry into astroturfing.
“These campaigns aim to drown out the authentic voices of farmers who support
renewable energy or who have chosen to enter into commercial partnerships with
renewable energy companies.
“We suspect that these coordinated campaigns are pushed by those who benefit
from slowing or stopping renewable energy projects.”
The inquiry launched in late July to investigate climate and energy mis- and
disinformation campaigns and uncover which foreign and local organisations are
funding “astroturfing”, fake grassroots movements that are actually coordinated
marketing campaigns.
The inquiry comes as research links money-flows from global conservative
movements into groups in Australia that are purporting to be grassroots or
independent entities."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
