As Florida and the Southeast recover from two major hurricanes, conspiracy theory and untrue has risen to levels that the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says are unprecedented. First responders, local officials and non-profit organizations in storm zone must devote time and resources to debunking false claims.
Officials say this is a fake because of the real worldincluding preventing victims from evacuating or seeking help, annoying of recovery efforts and making jobs to help workers harder.
And when the size of misinformation follows Helene and Milton takes some by surprise, claims himself to follow a familiar pattern. Similar misinformation has followed hurricanes and other natural disasters, including exaggerated crime reports, false or misleading visuals and outright fraud. Researchers say that understanding such misinformation is important to reducing its spread and reducing its impact.
Here are some themes to watch out for:
Unverified crime is scary
After Helene, rumors spread online that people were slashing the tires of trucks transporting aid to storm victims, claims that local police said were untrue.
Unverified reports of crime have followed the storm for decades. After Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana in 2005, officials later said that claims of looting, murder, and rape, repeated by some media outlets and news officials, were exaggerated or false.
At one point, the Mayor of New Orleans reported multiple murders at the Louisiana Superdome, where thousands were sheltering. The National Guard later said there were no killings at the stadium.
A 2018 report by the Department of Homeland Security found that false claims often spread after a disaster because verified information is slow to emerge, fueling rumors and speculation.
conspiracy
Jennie King, director of Climate Disinformation Research and Policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said conspiracy to blame the government because typhoons have also become a routine. Researchers at the agency found those claims and others disputed by FEMA generated more than 160 million views online after Helene.
“If it brings up visceral emotions, negative or positive, then you need to take a break,” King said. “Don’t read too much into it. And if you find out that the claims are false or unsubstantiated, don’t give them supplemental oxygen.”
False or misleading photos or videos
Altered or misleading videos and images have become a regular feature of major weather events. As Hurricane Dorian approached Florida in 2019, old images circulated online fueling false claims of looting.
After Sandy hit New York and New Jersey in 2013, researchers identified more than 10,000 unique posts on Twitter, now called X, that contained fake images.
One of those images is the now-famous “street shark” — a modified image of a shark along a highway — that has reappeared during several hurricanes since at least 2011.
Fact-checkers also often remove images and videos of submerged landmarks and transportation hubs, which can mislead the public during natural disasters.
A digitally altered image of an airplane in floodwater, created by an artist in an effort to warn of the potential impact of climate change, has been wrongly depicted as showing the effects of hurricanes in 2017 and 2018.
And after Hurricane Milton hit Florida, an AI-generated image showing flooding at Disney World spread online across multiple platforms.
AI tools have made it easier for people to publish false or completely fabricated visuals, according to Anupam Joshi, who wrote a study on misleading visuals after Hurricane Sandy.
“You have to take everything you see online with a very healthy grain of salt,” said Joshi, director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Cybersecurity Institute.
Scams
Scammers often target hurricane victims and those who want to help. After Hurricane Katrina, scammers impersonated charities including the Red Cross, which was one of the reasons the US Department of Justice created the National Disaster Fraud Center.
Jun Zhuang, a researcher who studied online misinformation after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, told CBS News that scammers solicit money from victims through fraudulent links.
“‘Hey, if you sign up for this link, you’ll get $200.’ Or vice versa, ‘Hey, please donate through this link,’ but you don’t know where your money is going,” Zhuang said.
Historically, bad actors have also targeted storm victims with offers of assistance. After Hurricane Sandy, fake “contractors” claimed that FEMA would reimburse survivors for damage assessments and quick home repairs. One of these scammers defrauded 30 people of about $1.9 million.
To avoid becoming a victim of fraud, FEMA advises people to be wary of unsolicited messages and verify charities before donating.
