Tools for fighting disinformation

August 13, 2025

In 2023, Lucy Hamilton, writing in Pearls and Irritations, revealed that Advance Australia, a conservative lobbying group, has links to the US-based Atlas Network, described as a front for fossil fuel corporations that “blocks climate action and attacks democracy globally". An anonymous whistleblower on Advance’s email list claims its latest goal is to “raise $450,000 by August 31” to campaign against net zero in Australia over the next “two-three years.”

The International Panel on the Information Environment, in Facts, Fakes, and Climate Science, warns that “powerful actors … intentionally spread inaccurate or misleading narratives about anthropogenic climate change”, eroding trust, hindering policy, and reinforcing denialism. Artificial intelligence compounds the risk: one study found that 27% to 50% of respondents could not distinguish deepfake climate videos from authentic ones.

There is help. IPIE has issued a Summary for Policy Makers; the Melbourne Centre for Cities has developed the Disinformation in the City Response Playbook; and the UN Development Programme offers a fact-checking flow chart. That these tools are needed is regrettable – but if we are to safeguard knowledge and democracy, we must fight back.