French PR Executive Behind Facebook Network Spreading Heat Pump Hate – DeSmog

A French PR executive with links to the gas industry appears to be behind an online campaign to discredit clean heating, it can be revealed. The new investigation by DeSmog and Politico found boutique Paris-based PR firm Digital Tellers is linked to a web of connected Facebook groups and accounts, which regularly share false claims about the cost, noise and reliability of heat pumps. Electricity-powered heat pumps, which draw air from outside homes and transfer it into heating, are critical to Europe’s plans to reduce its reliance on volatile, planet-heating gas. Studies show that this low-carbon technology is up to three times more efficient than gas boilers, and, when properly installed, can halve households’ heating bills.  But posts disseminated in the Facebook groups by several inauthentic accounts describe heat pumps as “useless” and compare them to a “lawn mower that never stops”, while installers are branded “swindlers” (“margoulins”) and “environmental fraudsters” (“éco-délinquants”). This investigation was published in partnership with Politico. Three of the graphics – which were posted in the groups by an admin and regular contributor – appear to be AI-generated, and deploy antisemitic tropes, with heat pump installers shown as conmen, with hooked noses, open shirts and gold
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