Helene rumors and conspiracy theories get millions of views on X: NPR

Marine One aboard President Biden flies over a storm-stricken area near Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday. Biden visited North and South Carolina to assess the damage after Hurricane Helene. Social media sites, particularly X, were abuzz with politically charged rumors and conspiracy theories about the response to the hurricane.

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Avery Dull left her Hendersonville, N.C., apartment with her young daughter, a day after she created a TikTok showing brown flood water from Hurricane Helene swelling beneath her second-floor balcony. With Dull staying with friends two hours away and her life in limbo, she spends a lot of time online.

“I’m usually in bed by 10 p.m. Since this happened, I haven't gone to bed until 3 a.m.,” she told NPR. “I mean, I was up all day and all night just trying to find as much information as I could. It consumed me.”

After her evacuation, Dull uses videos on TikTok to keep up with her community.

“This is my hometown. And to see these places, just water up to the roof, I can't even fathom it. … I walked these streets and they just, I mean, disappeared.”

She is constantly on the lookout for updates on the death toll. “I want to know if any of my family members that I haven't heard from are alive and well. … And every time I do an update, it’s like five people.”

People like Dull and those still living in their storm-ravaged communities are hungry for reliable information. When they turn to social media, they encounter mixed results. Some platforms don't have much news at all. Other platforms have allowed them to form groups that provide information and camaraderie.

And then there is X, formerly known as Twitter, where politically explosive rumors circulate freely. Emergency management researchers complain that Elon Musk's platform, once seen as a useful source of information in the event of a disaster, is instead contributing to the post-Helene chaos.

The disaster became an occasion for political attacks

The storm hit two swing states just a month before a close election, making criticism of the response a tempting political attack line.

On X, the top results for “Helene” have millions of views, but are not always reliable.

“'$2.4 billion aid to Ukraine' vs. 'No more aid for Hurricane Helene' — three days apart,” End Wokeness wrote alongside video clips of President Biden speaking on two occasions. The post received over 5 million views.

The text misrepresents one of Biden's videos, in which Biden answers “no” to the question of whether more federal funding will be allocated for disaster relief, saying that local governments have not yet asked for the funds already allocated. The video also shows Biden saying the federal government had planned hurricane relief in advance, even before states asked for disaster assistance.

Former President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats withheld aid to Republican areas. Trump also falsely claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had been unable to speak with Biden, even though both confirmed they had spoken.

There is no evidence that the federal government is withholding aid from affected states. The Republican governors of South Carolina and Georgia have praised the federal government's support.

Other videos on X made wilder claims.

“Don’t worry guys, weather changes aren’t real! It's just a coincidence that Hurricane Helene is one of the most devastating 'inland storms' in history and that hundreds of pro-Trump counties are massively affected during the most important “election of our lives,” influencer Matt Wallace posted alongside video footage of flooding . The post received 11 million views.

False claims about weather-altering tools are common after severe storms, said Amber Silver, who teaches emergency management at the University at Albany. “And there are always questions about… is this storm man-made or is it natural?”

“But the extent of the conversations with Helene was unexpected for this event,” she said.

Damage to homes and vehicles and evidence of diverted streams can be seen in Black Mountain, North Carolina, on October 2. The street flooded by flood water can be seen in front of his property. At least 160 people have reportedly died across the southeastern United States and more than a million are without power due to the storm. The White House has approved disaster declarations in several Southern states, freeing up federal emergency management funds and resources.

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Twitter was useful for disaster relief, X less so

Although Twitter, the predecessor of

In a recent study, Silver and her colleagues surveyed people about how they used social media after Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

“When people shared pictures of themselves at the grocery store with shopping carts full of supplies, or standing in line to get gas, or standing in line at Home Depot to buy a generator, people felt things too the internal pressure to prepare for the storm,” she said.

After a disaster, people used the platform to spread information that helped first responders plan and respond to emergencies, Silver said.

But since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and subsequently transformed into X, everything has changed. A blue checkmark used to mean the company had verified a user's identity. Now it just means the user has paid for a subscription, making it difficult to identify trusted accounts. The company also increased the cost of access to analyze its data, making rumor monitoring efforts prohibitive for many researchers.

“The difference we're seeing here is simply the amount of potentially useless tweets that you have to sift through to find the useful, actionable ones,” said Samantha Montano, assistant professor of emergency situations management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. “And that’s a real challenge because in the event of a disaster you don’t necessarily have the time to deal with all of that.”

Researchers have not yet examined whether the impact of X's changes under Musk will have a negative impact on disaster relief. Silver applies for funding to answer the question.

“I still believe there are real benefits to using social media during disasters — be it Twitter, Tik Tok or something else — as a way for people to organize among themselves and work directly with survivors,” Montano said.

Dull says she relied on TikTok and a neighborhood Facebook group, as well as family and friends in the area. She wants to know both what is happening now and what will happen next.

“I would like to hear an update on the people currently stuck on the top of the mountains. I would like to know what steps they will take to move forward and begin rebuilding,” Dull said. “I want to know how they can help us feel a sense of normality again.”