A wave of antisemitic rhetoric and online threats has been leveled at state and federal officials in North Carolina in recent days as they respond to the destructive aftermath of Hurricane Helene, according to a report released on Tuesday by a nonprofit research group that studies online platforms.
Researchers with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the nonprofit, found that on X, the social media platform, 33 posts that contained misinformation about the flood response had together generated more than 160 million views as of Monday. The posts have driven many of the false claims that have been swirling since the remnants of Helene decimated western North Carolina with extreme flooding and mudslides.
“The speed and impact of the falsehoods and half-truths in the wake of the Hurricane Helene response illustrate just how unprepared platforms, government and the media are for the deluge of misinformation, hate and violent threats that will come in the wake of a contentious event,” the researchers wrote.
The antisemitic attacks have been lobbed mainly at the mayor of Asheville, Esther Manheimer, as well as at the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s director of public affairs, Jaclyn Rothenberg.
Posts that questioned Ms. Rothenberg’s loyalty to the United States because of her Jewish heritage had more than four million views on X. Another post that called out Mayor Manheimer’s faith racked up nearly 13 million views on the platform.
The findings are the latest indication of just how widespread and entrenched the misinformation surrounding the natural disaster has been, with officials of both major political parties denouncing the false statements and rumors, describing them as dangerous.
Kevin Corbin, a Republican state representative in North Carolina, pleaded on Facebook, “PLEASE help stop this junk.” Representative Chuck Edwards, a Republican whose district includes western North Carolina, released a lengthy statement on Tuesday that sought to debunk several false claims, including that FEMA was seizing property and that the government had the technology to geoengineer a hurricane.
“Misinformation is a grave threat in the aftermath of a storm like Helene,” Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina said in a statement, warning that it could be “deadly.”
Ms. Manheimer, in an interview with Asheville Watchdog, appeared to draw a connection between the attacks and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican from Georgia, who Ms. Manheimer said “has made this inference that Jews control the weather, and I’m a Jewish mayor and somehow there’s a correlation.”
Ms. Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Misinformation surrounding Helene has also become tinged with threats of violence, according to the report.
A post on X that falsely purported to show footage of a FEMA director being “beaten” had more than 267,000 views, the report states. A correction was added to the footage, clarifying that no such beating had occurred, but it still continued to gain traction, with some users sharing it as a “warning” to other officials.
Representatives for X did not respond to a request for comment.
“Falsehoods around hurricane response have spawned credible threats and incitement to violence directed at the federal government,” the institute researchers reported. “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 rapid spread of such posts has underscored how X, formerly known as Twitter, has effectively scaled back its removal of misinformation on the platform, an issue that has become a point of contention during the current election campaign.
The new report’s findings suggest that postings about the hurricane response have also been a source of heightened public distrust.
FEMA has recently been forced to contend with false claims on the platform that it is stealing donations, diverting disaster aid to Ukraine or refusing help from others.
The agency had more than 700 employees in North Carolina over the weekend, along with more than 1,000 National Guard personnel. FEMA has approved $30 million in housing and other assistance for Helene victims, and has helped house nearly 1,700 people in hotels, according to officials.
President Biden announced on Sunday that he was deploying 500 additional troops to western North Carolina. “My administration is sparing no resource to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.
Former President Donald J. Trump has also made false claims about the disaster, including that relief funds were being diverted to house undocumented migrants and that Democrats were not eager to help conservative flood victims.
On Saturday, Buncombe County’s government said that 911 dispatch centers were being inundated with rumors about FEMA turning away donations and seizing property — all of them without evidence.
Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, told CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday that the misinformation online was “a distraction and not helping the core of the effort right here, which is to save lives and start rebuilding.”
The post Antisemitism and Threats Directed at Officials Over Storm Response appeared first on New York Times.
