Outrageous claims and outright lies are making it harder for US authorities to help hurricane victims.
Well before Milton had even formed in the climate-charged waters of the Mexican Gulf, the lies were churning through social media channels, X prominent among them. Some were absurd, most were politically motivated. Many were dangerous.
As Hurricane Milton formed and began powering towards Tampa, rumours had spread that the nation’s lead disaster response body, Federal Emergency Management Agency, was bulldozing storm-devastated towns in North Carolina so it could mine for lithium, the precious metal used in batteries for EVs, that FEMA was withholding body bags, and that FEMA was favouring Democratic victims.
“They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,” he said.As Milton barrelled towards the coast on Thursday, Trump repeated the lies at a rally in Pennsylvania and his running mate JD Vance echoed them in Arizona.
Indeed, even as FEMA struggled to address the compounding storm crises, it was forced to dedicate resources to countering misinformation,: Applying for disaster assistance does not grant FEMA or the federal government authority or ownership of your property or land “The situation exemplifies a wider trend: increasingly, a broad collection of conspiracy groups, extremist movements, political and commercial interests, and at times hostile states, coalesce around crises to further their agendas through online falsehoods, division and hate,” it said. “They exploit social media moderation failures, gaming their algorithmic systems, and often produce dangerous real-world effects.
He said that as desperate people in disaster zones were turning to social media for crucial information, they were “being preyed on by a series of bad actors and algorithms that promote disinformation over good information because it gets high engagement”.
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