The disinformation that flooded social media during Spain’s catastrophic floods threatened the vital work of emergency services and exploited fear, anger and grief, an AFP investigation has found.
Europe’s worst floods in a generation have killed more than 210 people, left dozens missing and left entire towns under mud, especially in the eastern region of Valencia.
The number of fake messages on the internet multiplied as heavy rains lashed Spain on October 29, with one message targeting residents living near the Magro and Mijares rivers who saw an evacuation warning supposedly issued by authorities.
Although officials warned locals to stay away from the riverbanks, they never asked them to leave their homes as claimed in the false reports.
The Virtual Operations Support Team, an association of volunteers who monitor social media during crises, told AFP that such disinformation leads to chaos.
There was a risk that panicked residents would have to leave their towns “in a disorderly manner” on highways devastated by the floods, “blocking access to emergency vehicles,” the report said.
Equally dangerous to public safety was a message claiming to provide an alternative emergency number that could be called if the official 112 line was unavailable.
– ‘Destroyed dams’ –
The amount of disinformation during the first two days of the disaster was so great that the leader of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazon, and fire chief Jose Miguel Basset felt compelled to intervene.
“They talked about evacuations, flooding, dam breaches: none of that made sense, but it did seriously disrupt the work of the emergency services,” Basset said.
Popular anger at the authorities for their perceived inaction before and after the destruction led to a search for the perpetrators and another source of misinformation: the government’s alleged ‘destruction of dams’.
The story has existed in Spain for a while without ever being substantiated.
In 2023, the association AEMS – Rivers with Life told AFP that dismantled, disused or destroyed dams could cause or worsen flooding. But Spain has not destroyed a major dam in recent years.
Some Internet users slammed the disaster, claiming that the exceptionally powerful Mediterranean storm that caused the disaster was the work of “climate geoengineering,” ruling out the influence of climate change, which they deny.
However, the science is clear. Neither the so-called “chemtrails” – contrails in the sky left by airplanes – nor the HAARP project, which studies Earth’s outer atmosphere, were behind the storm.
Rainfall was 12 percent heavier and twice as likely compared to the world before global warming, according to the World Weather Attribution group of scientists.
“Climate change is deadly and we see it,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said this week, denouncing the “irresponsible discourse of deniers.”
– Parking lot ‘hoax’ –
The hostile reception that greeted King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Sanchez and Mazon in the ground-zero city of Paiporta last week also sparked an explosion of online disinformation.
A photo of a convoy of police vehicles purported to show that Felipe’s escort was actually a group of Madrid officers arriving in the area.
In another viral image, a firefighter was seen ‘crying’ after emerging from an underground car park in the town of Aldaia where hundreds of people were feared to have drowned.
The photographer told AFP that his photo captured the firefighter’s exhaustion rather than sadness.
Spanish national police chief Francisco Pardo condemned the “hoax” in a televised speech on Tuesday. The government confirmed on Wednesday that rescuers had found no bodies after all the water had been pumped out.
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