Pinterest Bans Climate Change Misinformation

Pinterest implements a new policy impacting how information about climate change is presented in ads and organic content.

An update to Pinterest’s community guidelines prohibits the sharing of false or misleading information about climate change.

The company says it’s the first major platform to have clear rules around the climate change discourse.

Let’s dive in to see how this policy change can impact your advertising and organic content.

The New Policy

Per Pinterest’s update:

“Our new policy makes Pinterest the only major digital platform to have clearly defined guidelines against false or misleading climate change information, including conspiracy theories, across content and ads.”

No other social platform has distinct guidelines around the topic of climate change, making Pinterest the first and only site to take a stance on what it defines as inaccurate information.

Pinterest encourages other companies to take note of the company’s stance on climate change and to adopt similar guidelines to stop the spread of misinformation.

What The Policy Means

Pinterest will start removing content about climate change that it believes could potentially harm the public’s safety, trust, or well-being. Content that can be removed includes:

• Deniability of :
  • The existence or impacts of climate change
  • Human influence on climate change
  • Climate change is backed by scientific consensus
• False or misleading information about how to combat climate change, if these solutions contradict scientific consensus
• Misrepresentation of scientific data in order to disintegrate trust in climate experts
• Harmful, false, or misleading content about public safety emergencies, such as natural disasters

Impacts On Advertising

Searches for a more sustainable, green life are increasing on Pinterest. Whether users are looking for products to replace in their household, or tips to reduce common waste, the search intent has grown 6X compared to last year.

With this new policy update, all ads on Pinterest need to comply with the updated community guidelines.

To make it clear to advertisers, Pinterest has also updated its advertising guidelines with this language.

The advertising guidelines updates will prohibit ads about climate change that:

• Contain conspiracy theories
• Have misinformation or disinformation

The goal with this update is to cultivate a community of trusted resources on the platform.

Navigating New Organic Content

Pinterest is also rolling out a new Creator Originals content series around creating a greener lifestyle.

Creators who are in these countries are eligible for this series:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Germany
• France
• Japan
• Brazil
• Mexico
• Argentina
• Indonesia
• India

These pins will be called Idea Pins, which give consumers inspiration on tips and tricks, including:

• Thrifting or upcycling
• Minimizing food waste
• Replacing common household products with greener products

Summary

Pinterest’s new climate change policy gives content creators and advertisers the opportunity to take a new approach to a greener lifestyle. By creating content that gives helpful tips to a user, you are gaining their trust from the beginning and increasing the likelihood of loyalty to your brand.

Starting with helpful tools instead of straight selling products or services gets your foot in the door to new customers in a non-obtrusive way.

Featured Image: elenabsl/Shutterstock