X, ex Climate scientists are being harassed and threatened on Twitter!

Insult. From provocation to discrimination. sexual harassment. Threat. sometimes dead…

Yes you read that right. death threats! This is now a daily group of scientists who share their knowledge CaseCase Of climateclimate On Twitter–oh sorry, now call it X. agroclimatologist Serj Zaka, paleoclimatologist valerie maison-delmottevalerie maison-delmotteGeographer and member of the High Council for Climate (HCC) Magali Regza-Zeit, climatologist Christophe Cassou are some of the most famous names.

The Increasingly Spectacular Harassment of Climate Scientists

Helpless in the face of this rapidly increasing aggression, many climate experts are leaving social networksocial network, at least temporarily. For example, Christophe Cassou. climatologistclimatologist For FranceTVInfo, an example of “a mental pollution” is found.

A study published in early 2023 confirms that a large French denialist community has structured itself on TwitterTwitter From the summer of 2022. It is mainly composed of accounts that participated in anti-system or anti-vax campaigns. COVID-19COVID-19, More than half also broadcast Kremlin propaganda at the start of the war in Ukraine.

Climate scientists looking for a new platform

The phenomenon is all the more worrying because Twitter – now X – was until then one of the social media on which climate-related exchanges were most frequent and richest. “There is currently no platform equivalent to Twitter”wrote researchers who studied the question on a group of nearly 380,000 users ” environmentally conscious “, “Therefore any change in the interaction of these users raises serious questions about the follow up of the discussion on environmental protection. , which was to become X in six months after acquisition Elon MuskElon MuskAbout 50% of “eco-conscious” accounts have become inactive.