Using the Nextdoor Social Platform to Communicate Facts and Refute Misinformation about Climate Change and COVID-19

Abstract:

A recent study by the Yale Program on Climate Communications showed that only one in five Americans hear people talk about climate at least once a month. Only about half hear someone talk about climate more than once a year, and about a quarter say they never hear anyone talk about it. Moreover, only 52% of Americans know that scientists agree about climate change. These findings reveal a major success of organized science denial: spreading the notion that it is a political act to talk about science and convincing people that it is best to avoid engaging in such conversations altogether.

Climate communicators now recognize that one of the most effective ways to help improve climate literacy is to talk about climate change with people you know, connect on values, and provide information about how climate change is affecting, or will affect them, personally. This requires that scientists, science communicators, and our allies must overcome our reticence to openly discuss these subjects with friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers.

The Nextdoor social media platform has attributes that can be used to facilitate promotion of scientific literacy. Its architecture is local, users are required to use their real names and verify that they are local residents or property owners, and it has some degree of moderation. These restrictions do not eliminate trolls and bots, but reduce their number and influence relative to the major non-local platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Nextdoor, in principle, can be used as a powerful climate and public heath communication tool that combines the intimacy of personal real-life connections with the efficiency of social media. It can also be used to create local networks of people who are interested in climate and health literacy. Unfortunately, it also has flaws that allow it to be subverted by a few bad actors. We will describe our experiences and discuss what we’ve learned about the structure and organization of the platform, offering suggestions for how it can be improved in the interest of scientific literacy and community health. We encourage scientists, science communicators, and science advocates get Nextdoor accounts and create networks of moderated neighborhood-based groups to discuss science, promote factual information, and refute myths, rumors, and misinformation.