In the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Helene, X-formerly-Twitter has transformed into a noxious breeding ground for destructive misinformation about the storm.
In a series of toxic and easily disproven tweets, X owner Elon Musk took aim at the response by the US government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), falsely accusing it of diverting its funds to assist illegal immigrants entering the US.
This has been a favorite campaign trail attack line from former president Donald Trump, who in recent days has repeatedly accused the Biden-Harris administration of “stealing” FEMA cash and “giving” it to people who have illegally crossed America’s borders.
It’s a complete lie, however. Though FEMA has and continues to put resources toward the immigration crisis, the money allocated to disaster response comes from the federal government’s disaster relief fund, which is an entirely different pile of money. In short, the disaster fund is walled off, and none of it has been siphoned for efforts related to the border (or, for that matter, to Ukraine’s defense against Russia, as some pundits have suggested).
Regardless, Musk has repeatedly pushed the claim that these separate pots of FEMA funding are somehow connected and that the disaster relief fund is being drained for other, highly politicized purposes.
“It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false,” FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell told ABC. “This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people.”
In a similar vein, Musk has also amplified the false allegation that individual Helene victims are only receiving $750 in government aid. As Axios notes, victims who apply are getting $750 as a means of immediate aid for things like travel and grocery help — but that immediate handout is unlikely to be the end of the line for post-storm financial assistance from the government.
Musk also accused FEMA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of “staggering” levels of “belligerent government incompetence” on grounds that the agencies were shutting down the airspace above impacted disaster zones, thus halting Musk’s efforts to use private helicopters to deliver supplies and Starlink internet service (his provided evidence was a screenshot of some texts from a staffer).
Neither FEMA nor the FAA throttled airspace access, as the FAA confirmed to CNBC on Friday.
“There are no airspace restrictions in place in North Carolina as rescue efforts continue because of Hurricane Helene,” the FAA told CNBC in a statement. “Pilots looking to come into Asheville or Rutherford airports need to reach out to the airport for permission to land. The FAA is working with local authorities to ensure rescue efforts happen safely.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg even chimed in, replying to Musk’s post to clarify that “no one is shutting down the airspace and FAA doesn’t block legitimate rescue and recovery flights” and that Musk should “call” him if he encountered any issues. Musk later responded in the thread to thank Buttigieg for “simplifying” the FAA’s real-time update system, adding that “support flights are now underway.”
Even so, the billionaire never deleted the initial post, which according to X’s metrics has been viewed nearly 30 million times.
This wouldn’t be the first time that FEMA or the federal government has drawn criticism in the wake of natural disasters. But experts in emergency response have warned that X’s descent into an unmoderated cesspool of misinformation has heightened post-disaster confusion.
“The kind of difference here that we’re experiencing is just the amount of kind of maybe un-useful tweets that you have to dig through to be able to find the useful, actionable ones,” assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy Samantha Montano told NPR last week. “And that’s a real challenge because in a disaster, you don’t necessarily have time to be digging through all of that.”
There are many more false claims circulating about FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene, ranging from the allegation that the federal government is going to seize private property to congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s particularly bonkers conspiracy that a mysterious “they” engaged in “weather control” to cause the tragedy in Appalachia.
In short, it’s an incredibly unfortunate situation: as active aid and recovery efforts continue, the act of spreading toxic rumors stands to make the jobs of officials and rescue workers on the ground that much harder.
More on Helene and misinformation: Gullible Trump Cronies Losing Their Minds Over Fake AI Slop on Twitter
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