Draft:Ripple Research

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Ripple Research
HeadquartersSwitzerland, Europe
Managing Director
Ravi Shankar Sreenath
Websiterippleresearch.ai

Ripple Research is a Switzerland-based research advisory firm that works on various social impact issues, including climate change, public health, and democracy. Founded in 2020, Ripple Research works with public-private stakeholders, including advocacy organizations, policymakers, UN agencies, and philanthropies and academic institutions across diverse geographies.[1][2]

Key research activities

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Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, 2022 U.S. midterms, and overturning of Roe v. Wade

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Ripple Research collaborated with the Digital Planet team at The Fletcher School, Tufts University to conduct a series of studies analysing the dominant narratives surrounding key U.S. events and policy developments. In early 2022, after Elon Musk expressed interest in purchasing Twitter, the first study tracked the “sentiments expressed by users on the platform” in response to his announcement.[3] A multi-country analysis of “more than four million tweets found that posts reflecting positive emotions, such as joy, and negative emotions such as anger spiked after Musk started publicly criticizing the company in late March. But once news of the takeover broke, the dominant reaction settled, reflecting sadness and anger.”[4][5]

To better understand the implications of Musk’s Twitter takeover ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, another study tracked online conversations on the platform around four political narratives: civil war, election fraud, citizen policing of voting, and allegations of pedophilia and grooming.[6][7] The findings suggested that post-acquisition “the quality of the conversation has decayed, with more extremists and purveyors of hateful content testing the boundaries of what Twitter might allow.”[6][8][9] The analysis also noted an increase in “antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, and racial/ethnic hate speech” immediately after the takeover, with the volume of “posts pushing back against misinformation, hate and other toxic speech” being much lower than posts spreading “the original false or misleading posts.”[10][11][12]

In the same year, following the undoing of Roe v. Wade, a social listening analysis was conducted to monitor the evolution of sentiment and emotions among Twitter users in the U.S. as events unfolded. According to the report, “there were 1.8 million negative Twitter mentions of the decision,” with the “highest ratio of negative to positive tweets” coming from users located in Delaware.[13][14]

Alternative proteins and Dutch farmers’ protests

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On behalf of the Changing Markets Foundation, a Netherlands-based advocacy organization that supports sustainability campaigns, Ripple Research used “machine learning techniques in combination with human analysis” to identify misinformation related to meat, dairy and alternative diets.[15] The report found that more than 400,000 accounts published “distorted or false information” about plant-based alternatives[16], relying on the “weaponization of food” to “dissuade people from reducing meat consumption, despite its environmental benefits.”[17] The dominant misinformation narratives deemed alternative proteins to be “unhealthy,” framed the transition to sustainable diets as a part of the Great Reset, and undermined scientific consensus on the consequences of animal agriculture, engaging in in “polarizing debates”  that play “into the culture war divides.”[18] Although the research “could not determine whether big meat and dairy companies are orchestrating these conversations,” the European Environmental Bureau theorized that delegates from the livestock industries are using digital platforms to “influence consumers around meat consumption.”[15][19]

The report also uncovered that misinformation following the 2023 Dutch farmers’ protests against the national nitrogen policy, “subverted [Dutch] government efforts to reduce [agricultural] emissions into accusations of planned land theft, stoking fears of radical government actions.” Maddy Haughton-Boakes of Changing Markets said that these fears translated into “votes for a far-right candidate Geert Wilders,” who had earlier said that the government’s proposal to “buy up farm land and allow farmers to leave the sector […] is part of a plan to take land from the Dutch people and give it to migrants.”[20]

Climate misinformation on LinkedIn

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In 2024, Dr. Gunnar Schade, an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University, collaborated with Ripple Research to “take a closer look” at the spread of climate misinformation on LinkedIn.[21][22] The project involved undergraduate students in his course, ATMO 444: The Science and Politics of Climate Change, “analyzing 1,388 LinkedIn posts related to climate change” to identify and “systematically categorize” narratives of “denial and skepticism of climate science” using the Computer Assisted Recognition of Denial and Skepticism (CARDS) framework. Ripple Research “developed the data collection platform and conducted thorough analyses” to reveal that “a small yet influential group, termed “misinfluencers,” was responsible for nearly forty percent of the total misinformation posts.” These posts, discrediting climate science, downplaying the seriousness the climate crisis, and framing calls for climate action as alarmist, received “a disproportionate amount of attention” on the platform.[23]

References

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  1. ^ "EDMO Training Series on Health Disinformation – Module 1: Understanding and addressing health disinformation – EDMO". Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  2. ^ "15 May: 2025: Climate disinfo reload". EU DisinfoLab. Archived from the original on 2025-06-01. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  3. ^ d1gadm1n (2022-10-25). "The Elon Musk—Twitter Takeover Saga: A Multi-Country Sentiment Analysis of Twitter Users (Updated October 2022)". Digital Planet. Archived from the original on 2025-05-15. Retrieved 2025-08-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Musk doesn't own Twitter yet, but conservatives are racking up followers". The Washington Post. 2022-05-13. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  5. ^ Kim, Whizy (2022-10-05). "A Twitter trial would expose Elon Musk to scrutiny. Buying Twitter might help him avoid it". Vox. Archived from the original on 2024-09-12. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  6. ^ a b d1gadm1n (2022-11-04). "The Toxic Tales of the 2022 Midterms: Unraveling the Lies, Hate, and Extremism Polluting the Public Square". Digital Planet. Retrieved 2025-08-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ bio, See full. "Elon Musk's Twitter Buyout Brought Back QAnon Believers, Report Says". CNET. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  8. ^ Botros, Alena. "The quality of Twitter conversation has 'decayed' after Elon Musk's takeover, report finds". Fortune. Archived from the original on 2024-09-30. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  9. ^ "'There could be serious erosion': Tufts report finds Twitter hate speech on the rise - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  10. ^ "Resistance to misinformation is weakening on Twitter, a report found. (Published 2022)". 2022-11-07. Archived from the original on 2025-06-27. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  11. ^ d1gadm1n (2022-12-08). "Hate Speech on Elon Musk's Twitter: Under Musk, Hate Speech is Rising". Digital Planet. Archived from the original on 2025-07-16. Retrieved 2025-08-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Knight, Will. "Here's Proof Hate Speech Is More Viral on Elon Musk's Twitter". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2022-12-13. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  13. ^ d1gadm1n (2022-07-06). "Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision: Twitter's Decidedly Negative Reaction". Digital Planet. Archived from the original on 2025-05-13. Retrieved 2025-08-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ page, Melissa Gira Grant archive. "The cognitive dissonance of watching the end of Roe unfold online". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 2025-02-05. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  15. ^ a b "Pro-meat misinformation rife on social media, says report". TBIJ. Archived from the original on 2025-07-20. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  16. ^ Snelson, Ben (2024-01-18). "Navigating misinformation: the raw truth about Big Meat". META. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  17. ^ Sophie (2024-10-16). "EU DisinfoLab 2024 conference: our key takeaways from #Disinfo2024". CheckFirst. Archived from the original on 2025-07-23. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  18. ^ redactie (2023-11-30). "Naam Wilders duikt op in desinformatie campagne vleeslobby". Duurzaamnieuws (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  19. ^ Paliotta, Isabel; Snelson, Ben (May 2024). Breaking free: Europe's animal welfare crises and the brighter future within reach (PDF) (Report). European Environmental Bureau. Retrieved 10-08-2025. {{cite report}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ "Conspiracy Theories and Fake News Cause Climate Inaction, Report Finds". 2023-11-29. Archived from the original on 2025-05-24. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  21. ^ Woollacott, Emma. "Climate Disinformation Booms As Extreme Weather Threats Grow". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2025-04-10. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  22. ^ "Study finds climate misinformation lurking in LinkedIn's trusted environment | Heinrich Böll Stiftung | Brussels office - European Union". eu.boell.org. Retrieved 2025-08-10.
  23. ^ A, Texas; Arts, M.; Marketing, Sciences; Communications. "Atmospheric Scientist Tackles Climate Change Misinformation On LinkedIn". artsci.tamu.edu. Archived from the original on 2025-04-24. Retrieved 2025-08-10.