Maximiliano Manzoni

Freedom is the right not to lie A manifesto about climate, justice and misinformation in the social networks of 2025.

Climate is a hyperproblem, one that challenges how we create and reproduce meaning - that's why disinformation is a symptom, not the desease.

To get a change at this we need to rethink our relationship with information.

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Albert Camus once said "The freedom we must conquer is the right not to lie".

In times where the word freedom is bastardized by its worst enemies of yesterday, “only on this condition will we have reasons to live and die”.

For true freedom, we need to rethink our relationship with information.

Social media.

Where someone else is the one who gathers the harvest to sell things or feed an AI.

Engulfed by the quest to reach the audience where it already was the unsustainable millennial techno optimism ethos in the name of innovation.

It is not a contradiction that I was oblivious to all the discussions I was part of during all the years I worked as a fact-checker on COVID, climate and gender issues.

But we where taught to reach the audience where it already was.

Social media. Where information devours meaning.

Funding to fact-checkers was treated always more like a charity than a job as important as safeguarding the integrity of the information people receive on their smartphones every day.

This can be witnessed by colleagues in Brazil, left more than once to the fate of digital hordes by Meta.

About climate, justice and disinformation in 2025.

Facebook-driven fact-checking scheme was always flawed by the conflict of interest between the platform's business model and PR damage control through funding to some media outlets.

El presidente de Paraguay se reúne con negacionistas climáticos en Estados Unidos Santiago Peña se reunió con Victoria Coates de la Heritage Foundation, una de las principales ONGs que desinforman sobre el clima con dinero de las petroleras.

President of Paraguay just had a meeting with a representative from The Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025 and key player in climate and gender disinformation.

This is happening as its own senators try to push him closer to Trump.

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André Corrêa do Lago, viejo conocido de quienes cubrimos las negociaciones climáticas, será el presidente de la COP30.

Entre algunos detalles, es un vocero importante del uso de biocombustibles como parte de la transición energética.

Watching Latin Americans celebrate Trump's exit from the Paris Agreement is fascinating.

Our countries suffer millions of dollars in losses due to climate phenomena that are the responsibility of the United States - and the Paris Agreement guarantees at least some justice in this regard.

7 out of 10 Paraguayans live in a place where the local government does not have policies to mitigate or adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Data from new Consen.so analysis while the country suffers an unprecedented heat wave.

With Bing now also deleting the capacity of searching for cache version of websites - like Google before them - online research is becoming a little more harder by the day.

Enshittification at its finest.

This is a very important point. The perception of a biased attitude of social media platforms is just that and it's fueled by the fact that right-wing movements have built an ecosystem of misinformation / hyperpartisan information that usually doesn't stand any serious journalistic scrutiny.

Contrario a quienes creen que es un derecho decir cualquier estupidez, la eliminación del fact-checking en Meta nos deja sin uno de los pocos mecanismos de moderación de la plataforma que si tenía reglas claras.

La moderación que sigue es la que está dictada por intereses privados y opacos.

El derecho a no mentir Un editorial sobre clima, justicia y desinformación en las redes sociales de 2025.

I wrote this article about the impact on Latam media and users of Meta's decision to end its fact-checking program.

Also a more in-depth critique of the relationship between media and Big Tech in the face of climate, justice and misinformation in 2025.

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Disinformation on social media is not a bug, but an inherent part of the economics of attention.

Meta Reveals Plan to Alter Fact-Checking Program The move will end a third-party fact-checking system and rely on users to add notes or corrections to posts. It is likely to please the incoming Trump administration and its conservative allies.

Breaking News: Meta said it would end its fact-checking program and rely instead on Facebook and Instagram users to add notes or corrections to posts. The move is likely to please the incoming Trump administration and its conservative allies.

In the process, several media outlets lent their prestige to wash Meta's reputation.

“I will not sell my rich heritage at the low price of necessity” goes the saying.

Meta's defunding of its fact-checking initiative shows that the policy of “journalism incentives” was always a PR move.

Many media fell - out of necessity or ideology - into a system that, as colleagues in Brazil know, never protected fact-checkers from harassment.

La larga sombra de los eucaliptos La nueva solución paraguaya ante la deforestación viene con un viejo problema: agroquímicos

Eucalyptus plantations are the new climate solution in Paraguay - a solution funded by european public money with carbon markets in mind.

But new solutions come with old conflicts, as an investigation shows how these plantations use PFOs or "forever chemicals" banned in Europe.

Sadly, there is an agriculture excepcionalism and really lack of interest on the issue most of the time.

Part of the GWP* narrative is also the "biogenic" part of livestock methane emissions. But fossil fuels could use, for example, the carbon credits derived from the new "climate negative" claims by Big Ag.

Industry-Backed Emissions Metric Could ‘Completely Derail’ Climate Action, Campaigners Warn Governments have been cautioned against adopting a new methane metric that would “seriously undermine” climate action and which “penalises” low-income countries. A statement issued by more than 60 civ...

Thanks to @desmog.bsky.social for citing my reporting on Consen.so about the lobby from Big Ag to change the methane metrics in Paraguay.

www.desmog.com/2024/12/06/i...

Thank u for the DMs!

Hello #climate people!

Latam journo here.

I'm looking for some experts on GHG inventories to tackle some questions regarding the latest BTR from Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador.

If have some experience about the shortcomings of GTP metrics, better.

Thank you in advance.

I took a small break from my time off to see the new reports of GHG in South America and...

Eureka!

Paraguay for the first time recognized the "possible overstimation" of carbon capture by soils, forests and eucalyptus plantations. Big issue for our NDCs.

I’m obsessed with communication. Expression is my life. But… Someone in prison found a way to communicate with us via an act of care. Every time I’ve gotten my hair cut or done, I know I’ve been cared for. A prisoner made sure Luigi walked out looking good because they know image communicates.

I'm more than stoked by this because of what it means in terms of impact:

1. The issue is recognized by the govt.
2. They are actually doing something about it.
3. They validated the data and method we created for this investigation at Consen.so

Tras investigación de Consenso el MADES inicia revisión de licencias de litio El Ministerio del Ambiente relevó primera licencia ambiental que desafecta tierras de los Ayoreo del área de concesión a Paraguay Lithium.

So today I have a little bit a good news!

After our investigation into the lithium rush in Paraguay affecting indigenous lands the govt officially started to review the mining permits!

And not only that, but they are doing it using the methodology we created!

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In a related note, this year I know of a LATAM disinformation project that had to shut-down because of fears of SLAPPs and harassment.

As a side note, Project 2025 included killing most of the research from the National Weather Service that I used for this piece - two years short from the World Cup happening in almost the same stadiums in the US.