10 Key Discussions from the Digital Influence and Climate Friction Gathering 2024
4 minutes read | First published: March 19, 2025
From December 2–4, 2024, Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project brought together 35 researchers, artists, journalists, community organizers, and communications professionals from 14 countries at Publix House of Journalism in Berlin for the inaugural Digital Influence and Climate Friction Gathering.
This event brought together cross-disciplinary experts to examine two intersecting challenges:
- How digital technologies are enabling and exacerbating false narratives about climate change and influencing societal perceptions of the climate crisis.
- How climate solutions are being actively slowed down by those who profit from maintaining the status quo—what we call climate friction.
Over three days, participants engaged in presentations, discussions, and open spaces designed to:
- Identify the key actors driving climate friction and the role of technology in their influence campaigns.
- Share experiences in countering climate friction, reflecting on which tools and tactics are effective.
- Explore potential collaborative strategies for the coming years.
Over the course of the three-day event, 10 key discussions emerged from our cross-disciplinary debates, panels, and open spaces:
Challenging the myth of tech-saviorism
We must rethink the notion that the climate crisis can be solved by the tech industry. Big Tech operates with a self-serving mindset, asking, “What tech fixes can we create to keep business as usual, without real consequences?” Instead, the real question should be: “How can we change our behaviors and systems to maximize the technology that truly serves a sustainable future?”
Big Tech’s contradictions: climate rhetoric vs. reality
While tech giants claim to champion democracy, freedom, and small-scale climate initiatives, they remain among the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Worse, their platforms fuel polarization and misinformation, making meaningful climate action even harder to achieve.
How big business slows climate action
Participants of the event shared cases and examples of how fossil fuel and plastic corporations have strategically partnered with tech platforms, digital influencers, and advertising networks to delay climate solutions.
Sophisticated digital influence tactics
Digital influence has become one of the key strategies used by different actors to control narratives around climate crises. While these tools can empower communities to act, they are equally used to create confusion, suppress participation, and sow doubt about climate science and solutions.
Silencing the climate movement: attacks on activists and scientists
Climate activists, journalists, and scientists face relentless digital harassment, legal intimidation, and organized disinformation campaigns. A recent Global Witness study found that the majority of public-facing climate scientists experience online abuse, impacting their well-being and ability to do their work. This appears to be a deliberate strategy to weaken climate action.
The power of cross-disciplinary collaboration
We must counter these challenges by leveraging our strengths—whether in journalism, art, activism, or policy. Our power lies in collaboration: using our skills, connections, and platforms to resist misinformation and build alternative narratives that drive real change.
Creating counter-narratives: shaping the climate conversation
It’s crucial to explore different strategies for countering misinformation—whether through pre-bunking falsehoods before they take hold or crafting simple, hopeful, and action-oriented messages that inspire rather than overwhelm.
Refusing to accept a broken system
The chaos we see today isn’t a glitch in the system—it’s a direct result of it. We must ask bold, foundational questions: “What would a well-functioning, democratic digital public sphere look like?” and “How do we redesign these systems to nurture informed and engaged societies?”
Shaping a digital space that supports action
To create a healthier information ecosystem, we need to empower not just the public’s demand for reliable information but also the supply—by supporting journalists, scientists, ethical influencers, and artists. Regulation isn’t a question of if but how, and it must be grounded in five key principles: transparency, responsibility, accountability, participation, and responsiveness.
Building the future: sustaining climate action beyond 2025
In 2025, we will continue strengthening these conversations and creating resources that showcase effective strategies for supporting grassroots climate action.
In 2025, Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry project will continue these discussions to produce resources to support community climate action. If you want to know more, join our mailing list by contacting ttc@tacticaltech.org with the subject line Climate and Influence Mailing List.
This project is possible thanks to the kind support of our funders:
