Elon Musk is piling onto all the hurricane disinformation, hampering relief efforts
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/08/elon-musk-hurricane-disinformation-trump-00182769?cid=apn
The billionaire is using the power of his social media platform to spread falsehoods that officials say are hampering recovery efforts.share
By Adam Aton and Scott Waldman
10/08/2024 04:39 PM EDT
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.
Musk has helped spread accusations that the Federal Emergency Management Agency “actively blocked” donations to victims of Helene and is “seizing goods … and locking them away to state they are their own” — allegations that FEMA officials call false and which run afoul of state and local Republican leaders’ praise for the assistance from Washington.
On his social network, X, Musk also amplified rumors that authorities in North Carolina had “taken control to stop people helping” stricken residents and accusations that sheriffs were threatening to arrest FEMA staff “if they hinder rescue and aid work.” Many of his allegations centered on the claim that immigrants had already depleted federal disaster funds, which FEMA has said is untrue.
“FEMA used up its budget ferrying illegals into the country instead of saving American lives. Treason,” Musk wrote without evidence on X, where he interspersed messages about hurricane damage with political attacks on Democrats.
Besides owning X, Musk is the world’s richest person, the CEO of Tesla and the chief executive of SpaceX, a federal contractor that is using its Starlink satellite service to restore communications to communities cut off by Helene’s massive flood damage in the Southeast. He’s also a top donor to former President Donald Trump, who has been using his own social media network to level baseless claims that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”
Without mentioning Musk or Trump, FEMA leaders said Tuesday that misinformation is causing problems for Helene survivors, some of whom are being dissuaded from seeking help. They said it’s also harming emergency responders, whose morale has taken a hit amid threats to their safety.
The wave of false conspiracy theories “is absolutely the worst I have ever seen,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters on a Tuesday morning call. The agency has long had a rumor control page to combat the kind of scams that often flourish after a disaster, she added. “I anticipated some of this, but not to the extent that we’re seeing.”
“It’s just really unfortunate that [people] continue to try to create this level of fear in these communities that is impeding our ability to do our job at the level that we need to do it, but we’re not going to let it deter us,” Criswell added. “We are going to continue to be in these communities and support them for whatever they need.”
FEMA and other agencies are assisting residents in states including Florida, Georgia and North Carolina after Helene swept through nearly two weeks ago. They’ll be doing the same again in Florida after Milton makes landfall Wednesday.
Republicans such as North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis have also called for an end to commentators spreading rumors and conspiracy theories.
“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
Harris accused Trump and his allies of “playing political games” while lives are still at risk from storm damage.
“It’s profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness,” she said Tuesday on “The View.”
Musk’s misinformation campaign comes in the heat of the presidential election and includes political attacks as two of this year’s most pivotal swing states grapple with Helene’s aftermath — and as Florida prepares for what could be an even more cataclysmic landfall by Hurricane Milton on Wednesday.
Federal officials warned that Milton would bring life-threatening storm surge to large swaths of Florida’s vulnerable west coast, with the first tropical storm force winds arriving on land as early as Wednesday morning. The Category 4 storm clocked in at 155 mph as of Tuesday afternoon. It has already set a record as the third-fastest intensifying tropical cyclone on record, National Weather Service Director Ken Graham told reporters Monday in a call.
The biggest worries include concerns about Milton’s predicted path into or near Tampa Bay, a region of more than 3 million people that hasn’t suffered a direct strike from a major hurricane since 1921.