For me, it was a necessity to
show in Twitter that many things that are
being tweeted there are wrong.
Twitter ninjas v climate denial
You had the feeling there were a lot of people in Twitter denying climate change.
They are not a majority, but they are
extremely loud and extremely active.
In 2019, 'Maria' helped set up a group of internet vigilantes.
Their mission? To fight climate change denial on Twitter.
My first idea was to debunk disinformation with scientific evidence.
But after a couple of months you realise
you don't make an impact because for most of these people facts are irrelevant.
I thought, OK, let's use the means we have, the tools we have in Twitter
to get these people permanently suspended.
The 'ninjas' reported tweets that broke the rules...
and accounts could end up suspended as a result.
Climate change denial is not an issue for Twitter, unfortunately.
But there are some things that are an issue for Twitter.
Racist content, harassing people, a lot of threats.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether they get suspended because of COVID-19 misinformation or some Nazi symbols…
At the end of the day, when they're gone, they're gone.
We started, as I say, a very small group, and then from this point on
we all just found people that we thought were interesting
and suggested within the group:
what do you think about this account?
I remember the day Maria asked me to join TNT
because she was very secretive about it.
Team Ninja Trollhunters.
Because you know, you also have to be sure that it would be a person that can keep this little secret.
I didn't know what to expect, so yeah, that was very exciting.
Today the group has around 25 members.
Their identities are a well-kept secret.
For you to be able to do your work, to be effective and not be scared of the consequences
you really have to fly under the radar.
We are all different persons with very different backgrounds, ok?
So, everybody has to find his way how to be effective.
Maria, she was more in the background. She, at some point, more or less lost the interest in debating them at all
because it was kind of pointless. When I started debating deniers, I noticed that they could become so angry that they would harass you
Which would be reportable and another way to get rid of them.
I think you could say that I was pushing buttons, we had to be creative.
Twitter doesn't care about climate misinformation.
If you are using this tactic of provoking somebody, it can also carry you away.
It happened. I got suspended. I had to remove my tweet.
Learnt the lesson.
It’s fair to say that I was kind of trolling the trolls, yes.
Those deniers… They are spreading misinformation.
They are effectively hindering our efforts to fight climate change.
I can’t see any real world damage worse than what they are doing.
If someone thinks that we are restricting free speech
or we are some kind of police
this is absolutely wrong, because I don't decide, as a person, or we, as a group, don't decide what is allowed in Twitter and what is not.
Twitter decides it.
Twitter did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment.
We got a lot of big accounts permanently suspended.
So we were really effective and this is also the motivation. This was our motivation, to see things are changing.
Some things are disappearing, or we don't see them as often as we used to when we started.
So yeah, I think we really made a difference.
The 'ninjas' say hundreds of accounts spreading...
climate denial were suspended because of them.
Maria and I, we fought a lot of battles, so to speak, together and I guess we kind of grew together somehow
and also found each other very interesting and not just what we
did in Twitter in general. Curiosity grew, and at some point we decided to meet in person.
Within this group, you talk a lot about everything.
About science, about politics, about what's going on in the world, about climate change.
So you get to know each other. We see many things the same way.
Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, has just announced that amnesty for many banned Twitter accounts.
When Elon Musk decided that all those accounts that were permanently suspended could get their accounts reactivated and go back with their business as usual
that was a slap in the face
for our little group, and the work we have done and the time we have spent.
This was the point where I said, that's it.
When Elon Musk announced that he would buy Twitter, I already decided that if that happens, I would leave the platform.
I personally have left Twitter, but our group continues.
I know that they are doing a good job.
Some people might question our methods, but I would like to see better approaches that are more effective, because we're dealing with a very serious problem here.
When you share a goal, when you are passionate about something, just find the right people, build a little group
be effective, and you can push back and you can make a huge difference.