Data Monitor June 2026: Wildfire Lies and Trolls on BlueSky
While the clear blue skies of summer have us shaking off a chilly winter and wet spring, unfortunately not all is well in the BlueSky online as the NYT recently reported that Russia-linked actors have targeted accounts on the platform. And here at CAAD, while we haven’t been targeted by Russians (as far as we know) we did notice an unusual spike in new followers on BlueSky: a mix of normal looking users and somewhat suspicious accounts that displayed characteristics commonly associated with coordinated inauthentic behavior used to use to sow in-group partisan division and chaos.
So consider this your regular reminder to keep your friends close, and your passwords closer. Always worth a reminder that operational and information security matter!
And with the warm weather comes higher risk of wildfires. And thanks to the fossil fuels fueling climate change and the fossil fools lying about it online, it’s harder than ever to stay informed in real time with social media.
That’s because, as CAAD has documented over the years, the Big Tech platforms controlling vast portions of the public information environment have chosen to reward liars with the digital spotlight of monetized attention while hiding those telling the truth in the shadow(ban)s.
So as wildfire season ramps up, here’s a quick warning of what you can expect to see, in terms of bad posts on the bad post websites, with the below excerpted sample of the full brief here in English and here in French (Canadian).
Climate change makes wildfires worse, and Big Tech does, too
As the 2026 wildfire season begins, we can expect a fresh round of lies to follow the flames, as they have in recent years around the world, thanks to Big Tech.
Just like climate change has made fires worse, Big Tech has made digital disinformation worse by creating an attention economy that broadcasts lies no matter the cost, as explored in depth in CAAD’s 2024 report, Extreme Weather, Extreme Content.
Disinfluencers have established a pattern of initially sowing distrust in the cause of wildfires and politicizing government response, which then builds to supporting conspiracism in climate science, and finally allows for full denial.
While it is still early in the season, mainstream media is already gearing up with wildfire reporting, warning Canadians that wildfire seasons are “growing longer, larger and more destructive.”
As these reports assess the risks across the region and fires start igniting, deniers have already begun to lay the groundwork for countering climate change narratives with their own disinformation – for example, one user claiming that Canada never used to have a “fire season,” but not because of climate change. Rather, “it is because of arson, not wildfires.”
At this point, social media users know that if they spread conspiracy theories about climate change, platforms might eventually reward them with attention, influence, and money, the same way a gambler “knows” someone’s eventually going to hit the slot machine jackpot. It’s just a matter of pulling the lever.
Social Media Companies Could Stop This, If They Wanted
For years now, social media companies have been warned about the false claims their platforms broadcast to millions of users during extreme weather events, when accurate information can mean literally life or death.
Researchers have mapped the networks, tracked the false narratives, and documented the harms. Companies that care about information integrity have all the information they need to act.
Given that these lies are broadcast to millions of people every year, instead of the truth they need to survive the climate crisis, they get an information crisis too.
That’s why a majority of Canadians, 86%, want Ottawa to take action against climate disinformation during extreme weather events.
What Now?
What do we do about it? Same thing we do every day: call on policymakers to protect the public from harmful products!
As Charles-Édouard Têtu, Climate Policy Analyst for Équiterre put it, “Every day that goes by where the government decides not to implement frameworks regulating information integrity, lives are uselessly put at risk. Canadians deserve a fair and safe online environment where they are not fed blatant lies.”
Dr. Melissa Lem, CAPE Representative, Past President added that “As physicians, we’re left picking up the pieces when climate disinformation costs health and lives. During wildfires, we need accurate information about evacuations, smoke and toxic exposures, and other health risks; not conspiracy theories that distract from the dangers communities are facing. Yet social media platforms continue to reward and profit from the rapid spread of false and misleading content during emergencies. Just like wildfire smoke, information pollution threatens public health and safety. People in Canada deserve online spaces that prioritize people’s well-being over profit.”
And Canadians know they deserve it, as CAAD’s own communications co-chair Phil Newell pointed out: “86% of Canadians want Ottawa to take action on the climate disinformation broadcast by addictive Big Tech platforms during extreme weather events like wildfires because when lives are on the line, it should be easier to find the truth than lies online.”
In CAAD News
- Climate Lies Going Unchallenged On German TV Nearly Once A Week
- Amazon Web Service Helps Big Meat Eat The Amazon Rainforest: Amazon Cloud’s Toxic Clients
- A Trillion Dollars in Leverage: AI is Killing the Internet, But Advertisers Can Save It, Says UN Issue Brief
In Other News
- Unmasking the global architects of Africa’s climate fake news
- TikTok’s Climate Pledges Collide with Sponsorship of Climate Deniers
- Fossil Fuel Funding: Why our universities must divest from industry-sponsored research
- The next Cambridge Analytica scandal
- We Banned Cigarette Ads. So Why Not Oil?
Got a lead that isn’t getting the scrutiny it deserves? Or a hunch that something doesn’t quite add up? Send it our way at [email protected]
