ISIF-APNIC: Tackling Climate Crisis Misinformation in Indonesia

Misinformation is one of the most common challenges found in digital technology developments today. Of the various misinformation circulating quickly in Indonesia, misinformation regarding the climate crisis is often considered harmless, with low risks and less visibility compared to the COVID-19 pandemic or political misinformation, whose risks are more visible. Climate crisis misinformation has the potential to trigger environmental damage and catalyst important changes to the earth’s ecosystem that will harm humans and otherliving creatures.

This “Tackling Misinformation on the Climate Crisis in Indonesia”research was conducted based on concerns about the spread of climate misinformation that is massively being found, and the attention to countering it is still quite limited. This fact is exacerbated by the findings of survey-based research conducted by YouGov, which states Indonesia has the highest number of climate-change deniers (climate crisis deniers) in the world and has a high potential for believing and spreading climate crisis misinformation. The climate crisis misinformation phenomenon is noteworthy for two reasons.

First, climate crisis misinformation makes people doubt and more in doubt about the climate crisis consensus. Second, climate crisis misinformation makes people distrust the science of the climate crisis. Hence, climate crisis misinformation directly impacts sustaining the climate crisis and hindering climate crisis action orpolicy. First, how are the understanding, consumption patterns, and digital literacy skills of Indonesian internet users related to misinformation about the climate crisis? Second,what are the various types of climate crisis misinformation found and verified byvarious reliable fact-checking sources in Indonesia?

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