Asymmetric Alliances in Climate Misinformation: A Network Analysis of the Swedish Climate Change Countermovement

Climate change countermovements play a key role in spreading misinformation and delaying policy action. While research has primarily focused on the U.S., little is known about CCCM networks in other national contexts. Using social network analysis of the online Swedish CCCM, we 1) analyze the network’s composition and structure, 2) investigate potential hierarchical influences, where narratives flow from global think tanks to informal social media groups, and 3) identify ideological groupings within the network. Our exploratory analysis reveals four main communities, ranging from traditional climate skeptics to conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists. The alliances between these ideological groupings are not reciprocal: while climate skeptic sites receive numerous links from other groups, they predominantly link to scientific sources and international sites. The presence of this asymmetric alliance indicates that climate skeptic sites act as central hubs, channeling international CCCM discourses into Sweden, influencing and strategically aligning with various local ideological communities. By shedding light on the Swedish CCCM’s structure and dynamics, this study highlights the transnational nature of climate misinformation and its intersections with local populist and far-right networks.