‘Armed Militias’ Claims In N.C. Driven By Social Media Misinformation; Forbes, October 14, 2024

Peter Suciu, Forbes; ‘Armed Militias’ Claims In N.C. Driven By Social Media Misinformation

""The amount of misinformation and disinformation we've seen around the recent hurricanes and help efforts is a strong example of how powerful those effects have become," explained Dr. Cliff Lampe, professor of information and associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Information at the University of Michigan.

Misinformation began even before Hurricane Helene made landfall, with the dubious claims that government officials were controlling the weather and directing the storm to hit "red states." The misinformation only intensified after the storm left a path of destruction.

"Over the last weeks we've seen death threats against meteorologists and now first responders in emergency situations," said Lampe. "There are a few things that are challenging about this. One is that belief persistence, which is the effect where people tend to keep believing what they have believed, makes it so that new information often doesn't make a difference in changing people's minds. We tend to think that good information will swamp out bad information, but unfortunately, it's not that simple."

Social media can amplify such misinformation in a way that was previously impossible.

"We saw that a small group of people acting on misinformation can disrupt services of the majority of people with a need," added Lampe.

"False information, especially on social media platforms, spreads incredibly fast. It's crucial to distinguish between misinformation and disinformation," said Rob Lalka, professor at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business and author of The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power.

"Misinformation refers to false, incomplete, or inaccurate information shared without harmful intent, while disinformation is deliberately false information designed to deceive," Lalka continued...

"New technologies are making it increasingly hard to tell what's real and what's fake," said Lalka. "We now live in an era where Artificial Intelligence can generate lifelike images and audio, and these powerful tools should prompt us all to pause and consider whether a source is truly trustworthy.""

Meteorologists Face Harassment and Death Threats Amid Hurricane Disinformation; The New York Times, October 14, 2024

Kate Selig , The New York Times; Meteorologists Face Harassment and Death Threats Amid Hurricane Disinformation

"Meteorologists’ role of delivering lifesaving weather forecasts and explaining climate science sometimes makes them targets for harassment, and this kind of abuse has been happening for years, weather experts said. But amid the conspiracy theories and falsehoods that have spiraled online after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, they say the attacks and threats directed at them have reached new heights."

Violent threats against FEMA swirl on social media; The Verge, October 10, 2024

 Justine Calma, The Verge; Violent threats against FEMA swirl on social media

"FEMA employees scrambling to respond to the devastation caused by hurricanes Milton and Helene are facing a new, unexpected challenge: violent threats on social media."

Russia shares AI images of Hurricane Milton as disinformation abounds in US; The Guardian, October 10, 2024

 Ben Makuch, The Guardian; Russia shares AI images of Hurricane Milton as disinformation abounds in US

"On Thursday morning, pictures were circulating on X, formerly Twitter, showing a flooded promenade at Disney World in Orlando with the Cinderella castle at its center.

“Hurricane Milton has flooded Disney World in Orlando,” wrote one known vector of disinformation on X, with the photos, which X users immediately noted was probably created using an automated AI image creator. The post has already been viewed over 300,000 times.

Other versions of the same, allegedly deceptive post were also translated into Spanish and other languages then spread across X. The platform has added a warning indicating the images are AI-generated fakes.

Still, that didn’t stop RIA Novosti, one of Russia’s top state-owned news agencies from reposting the images to its official Telegram channel."

Meteorologists battle flood of misinformation as they report on Milton; The Washington Post, October 9, 2024

Maham Javaid

 and 

Kim Bellware

, The Washington Post; 

Meteorologists battle flood of misinformation as they report on Milton

"Several meteorologists and climate scientists told The Washington Post that they have spent decades warning about how climate change will lead to extreme weather events such as Milton. But the struggle to disseminate information in a fractured media environment has been worsened by an aggressive flood of misinformation, they say.

“This is by far the worst misinformation [for a] weather event I’ve ever seen in my career,” said Katie Nickolaou, a meteorologist with CBS affiliate WLNS in Lansing, Mich. “Because of Helene, you have so many people who now want to pretend to be experts or people who, as I put it, cosplay as meteorologists.”

Nickolaou said social media has become a hostile environment for scientists. On the meteorologist’s Facebook page Tuesday, a user “recommended murdering people to stop these hurricanes” — which Nickolaou understood as a reference to the conspiracy theory that the government or meteorologists are controlling hurricanes."

Inside the White House’s desperate scramble to swat down hurricane misinformation; CNN, October 9, 2024

Priscilla Alvarez, Sean Lyngaas, Kayla Tausche and Pete Muntean, , CNN; Inside the White House’s desperate scramble to swat down hurricane misinformation

"In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, senior Biden administration officials raced to engage in a round-the-clock effort to respond to what appeared to be an unprecedented amount of misinformation circling about the storm and the federal response to it.

Meetings were quickly convened across government to try to solve for the alarming rise in false information – from claims about funds being directed to migrant services instead of recovery to allegations that survivors were only eligible for little assistance – that have in part been amplified by Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump.

“This has been a galvanizing moment for the White House and the federal government because of just the outright lying and spreading of lies,” one US official said."

Biden Accuses Trump of ‘Outright Lies’ About Hurricane Response; The New York Times, October 9, 2024

 Michael D. Shear, The New York Times; Biden Accuses Trump of ‘Outright Lies’ About Hurricane Response

"President Biden on Wednesday accused former President Donald J. Trump of “outright lies” regarding the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene, causing morale issues among emergency medical workers and confusing victims of the storm.

Mr. Biden lashed out at the former president and Republican lawmakers as he participated in a briefing from federal officials about Hurricane Milton, which is expected to slam into Florida’s west coast just two weeks after Helene hit the state.

“The last few weeks, there’s been a reckless, irresponsible and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken. It’s harmful to those who need help the most.”

Mr. Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House, and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have made accusations about the government’s response that have repeatedly been debunked by local, state and federal authorities in the disaster areas."

North Carolina Republican pushes back on hurricane misinformation: "Nobody can control the weather"; CBS News, October 8, 2024

Caitlin Yilek, CBS News; North Carolina Republican pushes back on hurricane misinformation: "Nobody can control the weather"

"Rep. Chuck Edwards, a North Carolina Republican, sent a letter to his constituents debunking the misinformation and conspiracy theories that have spread in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, telling them, "Nobody can control the weather." 

Edwards, who represents western North Carolina, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene, urged his constituents not to believe everything they see on social media and noted there's been an increase in "untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains." 

"Please make sure you are fact checking what you read online with a reputable source," he wrote. 

Some of the most bizarre conspiracy theories that have spread online claimed politicians manipulated the weather to target Republicans areas in the battleground state and that the federal government was trying to seize land in the town of Chimney Rock to mine lithium."

FEMA Chief: Hurricane Misinformation Is ‘Worst That I Have Ever Seen’; The New York Times, October 8, 2024

Stuart A. Thompson , The New York Times; FEMA Chief: Hurricane Misinformation Is ‘Worst That I Have Ever Seen’

"Disaster relief officials have issued several warnings this week that falsehoods and rumors spreading online about the government’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton have harmed relief efforts.

Former President Donald J. Trump and other prominent conservatives have spread several false claims about the federal response to Helene in recent days. Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Tuesday that the claims had made the agency a target of partisan rebuke and put lives at risk.

“It’s absolutely the worst that I have ever seen,” Ms. Criswell said during a phone call with reporters on Tuesday morning.

Misinformation and rumors often circulate amid natural disasters, as information is scarce and tensions are high. But the scale and speed of falsehoods that have circulated during Helene and Milton have surprised officials, including Ms. Criswell, who said on Tuesday that she had “anticipated some of this, but not to the extent that we’re seeing.”

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a research group that studies online platforms, found that debunked claims about Hurricane Helene and FEMA’s response were circulating widely on X, the platform owned by Elon Musk that has increasingly become a haven for misinformation. The group found that just 33 posts containing claims debunked by government sources were seen more than 160 million times by Monday."

Elon Musk is piling onto all the hurricane disinformation, hampering relief efforts; Politico, October 8, 2024

ADAM ATON and SCOTT WALDMAN, Politico; Elon Musk is piling onto all the hurricane disinformation, hampering relief efforts

"Elon Musk is using his social media network to spread election conspiracy theories about U.S. disasters — just as online falsehoods are complicating the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton...

Falsehoods about natural disasters complicate the logistics of disaster response, which can hinge on survivors cooperating with a patchwork of authorities, the FEMA leaders said this week. They warned that conspiracy theories have already hampered the work of rescue and recovery...

Republicans, Democrats and nonpartisan officials have pushed back on the claims from Musk — as well those from Trump, who has gone even further and falsely accused Democrats of blocking aid to Republican-leaning areas. GOP officials in those areas say federal agencies and officials have been in close contact...

Musk’s amplification of conspiracies comes as he prepares to hit the campaign trail for Trump in the next month before November’s election, with a focus on Pennsylvania...

After their conversation Friday, Musk thanked Buttigieg on X: “Just wanted to note that Sec Buttigieg is on the ball.” And in a Monday interview with Tucker Carlson on X, Musk credited Buttigieg with waiving “insane” flight planning requirements.

“I want to give Buttigieg some credit here,” Musk said. “When I complained about it, he reacted in a very levelheaded way. And he reached out to me, and he called me. And we discussed the issue, got to the bottom of it, and he fixed it.”...

Internationally, Musk and his social media company have faced penalties for what other governments have described as disinformation and hate speech."