The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding the passage of the powerful hurricane Milton is in full swing, to the point where President Joe Biden had to speak out to deny all of this.
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• Also read: Biden blasts Trump for ‘avalanche of lies’ about hurricanes
According to a study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a non-profit organization that works to counter disinformation, around thirty viral publications with conspiratorial content on the X platform have accumulated more than 159 million views in the last month.
These publications accuse, among other things, the federal government of deliberately sabotaging rescue efforts for citizens affected by bad weather, by allegedly diverting emergency funds to give them to illegal migrants in the country. An idea also taken up by none other than former President Donald Trump in his campaign rallies.
In addition, these theories are often downright anti-Semitic, since several users of these social networks suggest that this sabotage would be the work of Jewish members of the government in particular.
In comparison, publications on the hurricane Helene of the federal agency FEMA, which coordinates emergency services on the ground, only managed to reach barely 2.6 million people.
The climate, a weapon of the government?!
Worse still, other publications go so far as to accuse the American government of using climate as a weapon against its own citizens! Images of supposed aerial spraying, better known in conspiracy circles as chemtrailshas been widely circulated as so-called “evidence” that agents of the deep state are artificially creating hurricanes.
These theories may seem preposterous, but they have attracted enough attention that the president himself had to officially deny them in a press briefing. Indeed, the authorities fear that this misinformation will have negative effects on evacuation and rescue efforts in our neighbors to the South.
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