-
Officials are urging people to stop spreading misinformation during Hurricane Helene recovery efforts.
-
Both Republicans and Democrats have spread disinformation and false rumors.
-
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have amplified false claims.
As rescuers respond to the devastation in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, government officials on both sides of the aisle are calling for a ceasefire over misinformation.
Since the hurricane made landfall in Florida and moved toward the Carolinas, the storm itself has been swept up in another powerful force: American politics in a presidential election year.
Some social media users are sharing unsubstantiated claims, some accompanied by fake ones AI-generated photos criticizing the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the government’s emergency response group, and, by extension, President Joe Biden’s administration.
“It’s not necessarily unusual for emergencies to be a breeding ground for misinformation and disinformation, but I do think we’ve seen a particularly high number of false claims increase at this point,” said Mekela Panditharatne, senior advisor at the Brennan Center for Justice , a nonprofit policy institute at New York University’s School of Law, tells Business Insider. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s so close to a very important national election.”
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of
Musk shared another claim that Asheville, North Carolina’s airspace, had been closed to block recovery efforts, prompting a fact-check from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who said the Federal Aviation Administration would not close the airspace. Buttigieg told Musk to call him if there were any problems, and after they spoke, Musk messaged that flights were on their way and thanked Buttigieg.
Trump has used the disaster to criticize the Biden administration and, by extension, his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, saying the Biden administration “stole the FEMA money” and “gave it all to illegal migrants,” the Washington Post reported.
His comments came after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said FEMA would need more money from Congress to get through the rest of the hurricane season.
A Washington Post investigation found no evidence that the Biden administration used emergency relief funds for the migrant crisis. But during the 2019 hurricane season, Trump himself approved the use of $155 million in disaster relief funds for immigration detention at the border, the Post reported.
Bipartisan calls to stop spreading ‘junk’ information
In response to the spike in false rumors, FEMA created a searchable fact-check page to address misinformation about the relief efforts. In North Carolina, the Department of Public Safety also shared a fact check on social media, which Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper reposted.
Republicans have also joined the fight against false information. Kevin Corbin, a Republican member of the North Carolina Senate, has issued a plea on Facebook for people to stop spreading “conspiracy theory garbage.” He listed bizarre claims he and other officials say they have heard, ranging from accusations that “FEMA steals money from donations” to “the government controls the weather from Antarctica.”
“It’s just a distraction for people trying to do their jobs,” Corbin wrote.
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, also a Republican, echoed Corbin’s comments on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on CBS News on Sunday. He said many of the claims “are not even from people on the ground” and are complicating rescue and recovery operations.
“It is at the expense of the hardworking first responders and people who are just trying to get their lives back“Frankly, most of what I’ve seen there is a distraction and doesn’t help the core effort here, which is to save lives and start rebuilding.”
Panditharatne told BI that the spread of misinformation can “deter people from seeking the help they need in this time of crisis.”
“It is perfectly legitimate to express an opinion or criticize the adequacy of a response, but some of the claims we see, especially from high-profile actors and politicians, are baseless and contradict verifiable facts or are unsubstantiated by evidence. she said. “Where that is the case, I think it can divert public information and resources and demoralize officials on the ground.”
In a crisis, gaps in available information can arise, creating a vacuum where misinformation “flows in to fill the void,” Panditharatne said. However, she added that this is not an excuse.
“I think anyone like Musk, who has a significant impact on the information ecosystem, should feel a sense of responsibility to promote information that will impact people’s ability to access the help they need, or public officials’ response to a crisis, not undermine it,” she said.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. X representatives also did not immediately respond.
Read the original article on Business Insider
