Baseless conspiracy theories about weather modification and false claims about disaster relief efforts have continued to spread on X in recent days, with misinformation about Hurricane Milton adding to a mountain of false rumors about Hurricane Helene and its aftermath.
The spread has sparked a push from local and federal officials, along with some politicians, who have decried the spread of misinformation and outlandish claims about the origins of the storms.
But that has done little to quell some of the loudest voices. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who claimed on X last week that “they can control the weather,” has continued to imply that the hurricanes were part of a political plot. In another X post Greene made on Wednesday, she said that “everyone keeps asking, ‘who is they?’” and added that “some of them are listed on NOAA,” referring to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
President Joe Biden criticized Greene’s claims in a briefing Wednesday, calling them “beyond ridiculous,” and saying, “It’s got to stop.” Several Republican lawmakers have also criticized Greene’s claims.
Greene and conspiracy theorists have cited NOAA webpages about weather modification projects. But the idea that any previous attempts to intervene with weather patterns have involved the creation or worsening of hurricanes is unsubstantiated and false.
Hugh Willoughby, a Florida International University professor who worked in NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division for over 20 years, said that government-funded attempts to modify weather in the past, like Project STORMFURY, attempted to weaken hurricanes. The project lasted for over 10 years but was dropped in 1983.
“We’re all trying to prevent human suffering,” Willoughby said. “And if somebody were deliberately doing the sort of things they imagine, we’d blow the whistle on it.”
Some of Greene’s posts have had “Community Notes” appended to them. An X spokesperson said that when a post is marked with a crowdsourced “Community Note,” which allows for users to provide context or clarify information in post, it is half as likely to be reshared. The spokesperson added that posts with notes are also 80% more likely to be deleted by their authors. Greene has not deleted her posts referencing the conspiracy theories.
In response to the challenges to Greene’s false claims, her deputy chief of staff, Nick Dyer, defended them, saying that she was actually the victim of conspiracy theories.
The explosion of misinformation comes just over three weeks before Election Day, with the storms causing some concern over whether people in hard-hit areas will be able to vote. The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public said in a rapid research report published Wednesday that Milton is set to exacerbate an already muddled situation.
“At the moment, as state and local election boards work quickly to communicate their plans, there is lingering uncertainty around the extent of the storm’s impacts on election processes and how they might be addressed,” the center said in its report. “It is therefore not surprising to see rumors emerging from within communities grappling with the anxiety and uncertainty of the event — or to see bad actors attempting to exploit these conditions to push strategic narratives and unfounded conspiracy theories for political gain. With Hurricane Milton expected to make landfall this week in Florida, we anticipate rumoring to continue.”
Since Hurricane Helene hit on Sept. 26, a slew of misinformation has been circulating regarding FEMA. In an Oct. 3 rally in Saginaw, Michigan, former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that federal emergency disaster money was given illegally to migrants in the U.S. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, similarly falsely claimed on X that FEMA had used disaster funds to house migrants, a post that Elon Musk reposted among others regarding FEMA.
In 2023, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administered $364 million to cities and counties that serve migrants under its Shelter and Services Program, and $640 million in grants from Customs and Border Protection. However, its Shelter and Services Program is separate from its disaster relief fund, which is over $20 billion.
In a post responding to the claims, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández wrote, “The Disaster Relief Fund is specifically appropriated by Congress to prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate impacts of natural disasters. It is completely separate from other grant programs administered by FEMA for DHS.”
While some false claims have been circulating on other platforms, X appears to be the platform with the largest user base on which conspiracy theories are gaining the most traction.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank, said in a report on Tuesday that its analysts had found 33 posts on X containing debunked FEMA misinformation that generated more than 160 million views as of Oct. 7. The ISD noted that nearly one-third of the posts it analyzed contained antisemitic hate targeted at Jewish officials such as the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, FEMA’s director of public affairs and the secretary of Homeland Security. The think tank found that since Oct. 7, the posts containing antisemitism have garnered over 17 million views.
“The situation exemplifies a wider trend: increasingly, a broad collection of conspiracy groups, extremist movements, political and commercial interests, and at times hostile states, coalesce around crises to further their agendas through online falsehoods, division and hate,” the ISD said in its report. “They exploit social media moderation failures, gaming their algorithmic systems, and often produce dangerous real-world effects.”
“Falsehoods around hurricane response have spawned credible threats and incitement to violence directed at the federal government — this includes calls to send militias to face down FEMA for the perceived denial of aid, and that individuals would ‘shoot’ FEMA officials and the agency’s emergency responders,” the report added.
Shauna Bowes, a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University whose research focuses on misinformation and polarization, said that times of “calamity” are often hotbeds of misinformation. She said that when misinformation comes from those in power, it makes it even more dangerous.
“Political elite messaging can really fuel polarization, really fuel divides and shape policy,” Bowes said. “So when these people are espousing misinformation and conspiracy theories, then it’s like, ‘Oh, OK, well, maybe it’s true. Maybe it is real, because somebody knowledgeable is saying that’s true.’”
Bowes added that in times of disaster, conspiracy theories arise when people begin to “find someone to blame” in order to make sense of what is happening.
FEMA is working to slow the spread of hurricane misinformation online. The government agency created a web page responding to Hurricane Helene rumors. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety has taken a similar approach creating its own page correcting false information.
On Wednesday, FEMA Administrator Deanna Criswell said in a news briefing that the agency is still seeing misinformation being spread but that the volume is starting to decrease.
“We need to continue to now remain focused on what our mission is, and that our mission is here to help people,” Criswell said. “We are not going to let the misinformation be a distraction to the important work we need to do.”
