Welcome to the latest edition of Meet the Disinfluencers, the series in which we shed light on the climate disinfluencers persuading people to believe false claims on social media.
If you’ve been on Twitter in the last few years, you might have encountered unhinged assertions about COVID and climate change from someone named Bernie Spofforth. Spofforth is primarily known for being a UK-based anti-lockdown campaigner who rails against vaccine requirements and masks on Twitter. She posts new content multiple times nearly every day for her 228 thousand followers, and her tweets regularly gain tens and hundreds of thousands of views.
Spofforth has caught the attention of climate disinformation researchers for the way that she spreads both climate disinformation and COVID disinformation, often simultaneously. As a January 2023 report by the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition puts it, “Bernie Spofforth is symbolic of the overlap between those opposing public health measures (including COVID-19 deniers and anti-vaxx communities) and the anti-climate movement online.” She was also named in a 2022 academic article on ideological polarization on climate change.
Spofforth is just as dangerous as she is prolific. In addition to the deadly public health disinformation that she disseminates, she has also spread numerous climate-related conspiracy theories, including the Agenda 2030, Great Reset, 15-minute cities, and climate lockdown narratives. The clock is ticking on climate change, and misleading claims about climate science and solutions further delay the climate action we so desperately need.
To top it all off, like many other climate disinformers, Spofforth is no stranger to hate speech. She regularly posts vile anti-trans rhetoric, fueling the flames of violent transphobia in the UK and abroad.
But who is Spofforth and why does she spread lies on the internet? Unlike other unemployed disinfluencers, she actually has a day job. According to her LinkedIn page, Bernadette Spofforth is the Managing Director at a children’s swimwear company called Splash About International, where she has worked for over ten years. She also has multiple swimwear patents registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Perhaps the reason that Spofforth is so intent on raging against COVID lockdowns is that COVID restrictions caused public pools to shut down, thereby jeopardizing her swimwear business. On Splash About’s website, Spofforth states, “We would encourage pool operators and leisure centres to listen to the Swim School industry and Swim England and increase children’s swimming class sizes to pre COVID levels, the risk of drowning is far greater than the risk of COVID spreading in a chlorinated pool.”
Interestingly, Spofforth seems to care about science when she is trying to sell bathing suits but not when she is tweeting about climate change or COVID. Splash About’s website advertises the fact that the “Happy Nappy Duo” is “scientifically proven to kill pathogens including Cryptosporidium, E.coli and COVID19.” However, on Twitter, Spofforth has openly questioned both climate and COVID science, writing, “CLIMATE CHANGE - 2 minutes of smack down by a scientist about man made climate change. The science isn’t settled …. It’s simply paid for! Societal change is being forced on citizens through fear & lies, for profit! How very Covid.”
The irony doesn’t end there, though. In an August 2021 Business Live article, Spofforth touts her swimwear’s environmental benefits. “It is a milestone development; not only for the swimming industry but there’s also the environmental impact to consider,” she declares. “Choosing this reusable swim nappy means reducing our waste levels and lowering our environmental footprint…” Furthermore, in a November 2021 Country Squire Magazine article, Spofforth again pretends to care about the environment and laments the very real medical waste generated by the COVID pandemic. If Spofforth really cared about the environment, though, she would stop sowing doubt about climate science and fearmongering about net zero policies.
Spofforth apparently has other entrepreneurial experience as well. Long before she became “Bernie” on Twitter and even before she started “splashing about,” Spofforth allegedly started her first company at age 22. She was the co-founder and CEO of a digital radio company called Intempo Digital, an achievement that helped her secure an interview in The Guardian in 2004.
So, why would a supposedly successful entrepreneur decide to devote so much time to spreading disinformation on Twitter? Well, in addition to the fact that Spofforth’s swimsuit business would indirectly benefit from decreased COVID restrictions, her heinous Twitter feed caught the attention of major right-wing news outlets in the UK and earned her interviews on conservative networks like TalkTV and GB News. Perhaps she enjoys the limelight!
It comes down to this: Many climate disinfluencers will say anything that benefits them, even when it contradicts science or their own past statements. When Spofforth is trying to sell swimsuits, she is all for helping out the environment, but when she wants to stand in the right-wing spotlight, she’ll use the deniers’ favorite term “climate scam.” Do better, Bernie!
