On Friday, billionaire Elon Musk took to his social media platform, X, to share an unsubstantiated declare together with his 200 million followers, alleging that FEMA was intentionally obstructing aid efforts for Hurricane Helene.
Within the submit, which shortly garnered over 40 million views, Musk claimed that FEMA was “actively blocking residents who attempt to assist” by “blocking shipments and seizing items” supposed for supply to these in want. FEMA and native officers have denied these allegations, labeling them as false.
Lower than an hour after Musk made his submit, former President Donald Trump, whom Musk has endorsed and campaigned for, amplified these unfounded claims on his personal social media platform, Reality Social, to his greater than 7 million followers.
The unsubstantiated claims unfold by Musk and Trump have raised issues amongst specialists who warn that the unfold of misinformation is “solely going to worsen” as Election Day approaches.
“I feel we’re in for a really harmful scenario this election,” mentioned Alex Mahadevan, director of the Media Smart digital media literacy mission on the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Research.
“I can solely hope that supervisors of elections are ready to pre-bunk, to get out in entrance of loads of this misinformation, [and] that they’ve a communication plan,” Mahadevan mentioned.
Sam Woolley, a disinformation researcher and creator on the College of Pittsburgh, echoed these issues about Musk, who he accused of being a number one determine within the unfold of misinformation. Since taking on X, Woolley mentioned, Musk has disregarded content material moderation and as a substitute pushed “disinformation narratives” that help Trump.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives for a briefing on the Columbia County Emergency Administration Company as he visits areas impacted by Hurricane Helene, Oct. 4, 2024, in Evans, Ga.
Evan Vucci/AP
“Proper now, we’re sort of in a race to the underside and that race is being led by Elon Musk,” Woolley mentioned.
Woolley informed ABC Information that disinformation and misinformation surrounding politics and occasions are “solely going to get extra pointed” and recommended that folks ought to “be on their excessive guard.”
“The objective of the folks spreading this type of false content material is to inflame tensions, to make you offended and or to make you extra apathetic in regards to the voting course of,” Woolley mentioned. “And so my name to motion for folks is, do not let that occur. Crucial factor in a democracy is that all of us are concerned and that all of us solid our vote.”
Writing on X, Musk additionally falsely accused FEMA of getting “used up its finances ferrying illegals into the nation,” calling it “treason.” Hours later at a city corridor occasion, Trump repeated these baseless accusations, falsely telling his supporters that FEMA was “lacking a billion {dollars} that they gave to migrants coming into our nation. A few of them are murderers. A few of them are drug sellers.”
The White Home has been hitting again on the misinformation, stressing that funding for migrant providers is run via a separate spigot at Customs and Border Patrol and isn’t associated to FEMA’s catastrophe restoration efforts. FEMA has additionally created a fact-checking web page on its web site to deal with the false claims.
Again in 2019, when he was president, Trump used FEMA’s catastrophe fund for migrant packages on the border. In keeping with a FEMA month-to-month report, $38 million was given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August of that 12 months.
Disinformation specialists and immigration advocates known as the posts by Musk and Trump “blatant falsehoods” that put “weak immigrant communities in larger hazard.”
“We have heard from President Trump that immigrants are voting illegally, that they’re stealing FEMA cash, that they’re consuming household pets — and that is the place the information rebut the fiction,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the president of International Refuge informed ABC Information.
“These sorts of blatant falsehoods are designed to divide the American public, and it looks like it is for nothing greater than political achieve,” Vignarajah mentioned. “Not solely do they undermine public belief, these lies actually put weak immigrant communities in larger hazard.”
Ohio officers have mentioned the baseless claims about immigrants and pets have led to dozens of bomb threats and different threats of violence concentrating on the Haitian group, which has compelled Springfield regulation enforcement officers to evacuate colleges, hospitals and different metropolis services.
Within the wake of the unsubstantiated claims about FEMA and Hurricane Helene, a prime FEMA official informed ABC Information the current false claims are maintaining folks from registering for FEMA help.
“The fact is that misinformation and falsehoods have an actual influence upon folks’s lives,” Woolley mentioned.
