The celebrated Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has threatened to quit Facebook if the social media platform refuses to silence her critics.
“I am, like many others, questioning whether I should keep using Facebook or not,” Thunberg wrote in a Facebook post last week. “Allowing hate speech, the lack of fact-checking and, of course, the issues of interfering with democracy… are among many, many other things that are very upsetting.”
“The constant lies and conspiracy theories about me and countless others, of course, result in hate, death threats and ultimately violence. This could easily be stopped if Facebook wanted to. I find the lack of taking responsibility very disturbing,” she added.
The “Youth Climate Strike” founder has enjoyed unprecedented stardom for her climate activism, winning encomium from such leftist heavyweights as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Elon Musk.
Musk said last month that Thunberg has “better reasoning & more heart than the vast majority of political leaders,” whereas Hillary called her a “gutsy woman” and former president Obama praised the 16-year-old as “one of our planet’s greatest advocates.”
Yet Ms. Thunberg is finding criticism enervating, suggesting that those who oppose her crusade are “interfering with democracy” and should be censored by Facebook.
The climate icon urged her fans to “challenge” Facebook to silence her antagonists, insisting that “if enough of us demand change — then change will come.”
Thunberg’s social media issues do not end with Facebook, however, and she has similarly complained that Twitter has not done a good job protecting her, either.
“It has come to my attention that a few people have been trying to impersonate me or falsely claim that they ‘represent’ me in order to communicate with political leaders, famous actors, singers and musicians,’” she said in an October 25 tweet.
“I apologize to anyone who’s been contacted — and maybe even misled by this kind of behavior. I hope that those who want to sincerely reach out to me will do so using the recognized channels,” she added.
The Swedish teen activist berated the United Nations General Assembly last month, scolding world leaders for having “stolen my dreams and my childhood.”
“This is all wrong,” Thunberg declared to the members. “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?”
“People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing,” she said. “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?”