[16th July 2025] – Facebook is the platform where most climate activists report having experienced abuse worldwide, a first ever survey today suggests.
Global Witness commissioned the first global survey of land and environmental defenders and climate activists about their online experiences. More than 200 land and environmental defenders across six continents took part, shedding light on the chilling effect that online harms have on the climate movement.
The survey conducted in partnership with polling company Survation reveals accounts of:
- Widespread attacks: 92% of land and environmental defenders who responded to the survey said they have experienced some form of online abuse or harassment as a result of their work;
- A chilling effect: 63% of the defenders who responded to the survey said they have feared for their safety while 45% reported a loss of productivity; and,
- Online to offline harms: 75% of respondents who reported experiencing offline harms due to their activism believe that online harms directly or partly contributed to the harms they suffered offline
Warom, a defender from the Congo Basin said:
“Online harassment has had a significant effect on us. It has discouraged us at times and has made us feel unsafe. Our work feels very dangerous, and we have feared for our lives.”
Jörg, a defender from Germany said:
“They have even threatened to beat me and kill me. I have also had anonymous messages that say things like – ‘next time I see you on the road, I’m using my car to run over you’.”
Meta operates the platforms where most defenders experienced abuse
Asked about where the abuse and harassment were taking place online, defenders most often cited Meta-owned platforms. Three ended up amongst the top four worst offenders: Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. 82% of defenders who have suffered abuse online say that they have been abused on at least one of these three platforms. X (formerly Twitter) was the second most cited platform for abuse worldwide.
- Facebook: 62% of respondents experienced abuse here;
- X (formerly Twitter): 37% of respondents experienced abuse here;
- WhatsApp: 36% of respondents experienced abuse here; and,
- Instagram: 26% of respondents experienced abuse here.
These results may reflect the popularity of Meta-owned platforms. Facebook alone has over 3 billion active monthly users, making it the largest social media platform globally. Defenders are calling on platforms to realise their responsibility to keep users safe. The survey found that only 12% of the defenders who reported their abuse and harassment to platforms were satisfied with the response that they received. The situation is so dire that 91% of the defenders who responded to the survey said that they believe digital platforms should do more to keep them and their communities safe.
Fanø, a defender from Denmark said:
“They have said things like ‘if I were there, I would run you over with my car’ or ‘this is why I have a shotgun’. I reported these threats to Facebook, who said they would investigate, but nothing seems to have happened.”
Gendered attacks, criminalisation and polarising business models
The survey and subsequent in-depth interviews surfaced a number of themes about the nature and impact of online abuse of land and environmental defenders, including:
- Gendered abuse: Almost a quarter of the defenders who received online abuse say they are attacked on the basis of their sex, and almost a fifth say they are attacked on the basis of their gender identity;
Fatrisia, a defender from Indonesia said:
“Unidentified attackers have taken photos from my personal Instagram account and posted them on Facebook group pages with lots of followers. These posts were filled with hate speech and lies about me. […] They […] said I am rumoured to be having an affair with a fellow activist, which is [a] serious allegation in Indonesia, as I am a young, unmarried woman. I think they are trying to shame me and take away my credibility.”
- Criminalisation: 35% of the respondents to the survey who experienced online abuse and harassment said that they had received offline threats of criminalisation, and 30% said they had actually been criminalised (e.g. arrested) for their activism;
Sharanya, a defender from India said:
“I think there is a relationship between what’s happening online and offline. Attackers use the online space as a means of defamation, of naming and shaming, and then use the offline space to physically threaten us and scare us, putting us under surveillance, throwing stones at our houses. They’re trying to silence us.”
- Social media business model: Almost two-thirds of the defenders who experienced online abuse and harassment say that they believe that there are aspects of digital platforms that have exacerbated the abuse and harassment they suffered.
When asked to give more detail about social media features that drive abuse, defenders highlighted the polarising nature of the algorithms, the lack of resourcing allocated towards moderation and complaints, platforms allowing trolls and bots to operate, and the monetisation techniques some platforms offer users.
Calling on social media companies to do better
Global Witness is joining defenders worldwide to demand better protections from social media platforms, in particular those owned by Meta and X. In recent years both companies have rowed back safety mechanisms in the name of ‘free speech’.
The survey findings suggest this approach may be undermining freedom of expression of vulnerable groups, such as defenders. A survey of 468 climate scientists published by Global Witness in 2023 revealed similar patterns. 39% had experienced online harassment related to their work, with this figure rising to 49% among more established scientists.
Ava Lee, Campaign Strategy Lead, Global Witness said:
“The climate crisis is taking its toll on everyone on the front lines of the fight for justice. And right now, social media companies are making it harder for people to do this essential work by allowing hate and harassment to push people away from the movement.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. By investing in safety and content moderation, rather than reducing it to curry favour with President Trump, and prioritising points of unity over division, social media companies can lay the foundations for the important discussions that need to take place so we can meet the challenges of the climate crisis head on.”
Global Witness gave Google, Meta, TikTok and X and opportunity to comment on our main findings. Meta directed us to their Meta directed us to their Safety Center and resources on bullying and harassment prevention, which include a “Hidden Words” feature which allows users to filter offensive comments and direct messages, and a “Limits”. TikTok pointed us to their Community Guidelines on harassment and bullying and said that they do not allow harassing, degrading or bullying statements and behaviour. The others declined to comment.
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The new findings come ahead of Global Witness’s annual defenders report for 2025, which contains statistics on the killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders worldwide for 2024, to be published in September. In 2023, at least 196 defenders were killed worldwide for protecting their land, communities or the environment, according to last year’s report.
/ENDS
Notes to editors:
Photography specifically commissioned for this report is available here: Global Witness Media Hub
A note on sampling: surveying land and environmental defenders
Land and environmental defenders are a difficult group to reach en masse. Many such individuals have very real and immediate security concerns that require them to be highly careful about how they discuss their activism. No professional survey company has a panel of defenders you can reach out to. We therefore had to manually contact defenders’ organisations by a variety of means and do our best to ensure that we had as many people as possible from as many different places respond to our survey. We acknowledge that our survey sample is therefore not representative of all defenders. This report is the first of its kind focusing specifically on the digital threats faced by land and environmental defenders, and the role that social media platforms play in this. We have built on our existing networks to reach hundreds of defenders globally.
Contacts
Lars Sellien, Senior Communications Advisor
