Changes to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, may have had a significant impact on the spread of misinformation in the wake of natural disasters. During previous natural disasters, people relied on Twitter for information sharing, said Amber Silver, an assistant professor of the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security at the University at Albany who has conducted research on how citizens used the website during crises. Since its inception, Silver said, Twitter “almost organically became where many people would go to get the information about breaking news such as large-scale disasters.”
“People would see their friends, their family, and total strangers talking online about how they were going to purchase supplies, or they were boarding up windows, or they were tying down furniture, and they felt internal pressure to prepare themselves,” said Silver. But there has not yet been significant research about how the site has affected people’s responses to disasters since it became X last year.
Since Elon Musk purchased X, it has become a hotbed for conspiracy theories; Musk himself has promoted falsehoods about the federal response to Helene. Several changes that the billionaire has made to the website, including allowing any user to purchase the “blue checkmark” that previously signaled verification as a public figure, have complicated the ability to find accurate information from reliable sources. False information is less likely to be fact-checked by the site, and it is more difficult for researchers to access data on user trends, said Silver.
