Brace yourselves, because there’s a new disinfluencer in town. Eva Vlaardingerbroek is a Dutch right-wing conspiracy theorist who has become the newest face of climate disinformation on Fox and Breitbart.
Vlaardingerbroek promoted her way onto our radar with her “activism” surrounding the long string of Dutch farmers’ protests in response to nitrogen emissions reduction plans. Her March speech at a farmers’ rally has over 17.5 million views on Twitter, and her tweets on this subject have caught the attention of high-profile disinformers like Jordan Peterson.
But don’t be fooled! Vlaardingerbroek is not some earnest voice for small farmers: She is a disinfluencer who exploits whatever situation she can in order to make money by spreading conspiracy theories.
She has repeatedly framed the Dutch government’s emissions reduction efforts as “a pretext to confiscate land for their own political and financial gain,” and she has spread the 15-minute city and Great Reset conspiracy theories. According to her, there is “no nitrogen crisis,” but there is apparently a “globalist climate agenda.” Vlaardingerbroek uses the #ClimateScam hashtag, and, like many other climate disinformers, she also traffics in COVID disinformation.
Vlaardingerbroek has joined the flood of other climate disinfluencers who have realized they can make bank by posting climate disinformation online. In addition to posting disinformation on Twitter and Instagram, she also monetizes her harmful conspiracy theories through Substack.
Recently, Vlaardingerbroek has gotten publicity from some of the biggest right-wing outlets. She appeared multiple times on Tucker Carlson’s now-defunct show on Fox News to help push climate conspiracy theories. Furthermore, just this week, Breitbart covered Vlaardingerbroek’s tweet that states, “There is nothing more narcissistic, degenerate and evil to me than people who propagate abortion or not having children because of ‘climate change’ or ‘the current state of the world’... Get a grip, you weak minded morons.”
Yes, we're at the stage where Breitbart is turning Eva's tweets into full “news stories.”
So, whether you’re a farmer or an average internet user, make sure that you don’t fall for Vlaardingerbroek’s climate conspiracy theories!
New climate disinfluencers like Vlaardingerbroek will keep popping up as long as Big Tech continues to make climate disinformation a viable career path. Online platforms must address the widespread climate disinformation problem by, at the very least, preventing the monetization of climate disinformation.
After all, we can't keep waiting for Fox to fire its hosts who platform climate disinfluencers!
