Speaker 2
Once the information did begin to distort, how present was it in your feed, in anyone's feed? Yeah,
Speaker 1
once it started, the misinformation was, it felt like it was everywhere. Today
Speaker 2
on the show, what happens when hurricane season collides with a storm of online conspiracies? I'm Mary Harris. You're listening to What Next. Stick around. This show is brought to you by Discover. Have you heard about DoubleNomics? It's okay if you haven't. It's extremely niche and practiced by Discover. Here's an example. Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cash back match. That means with Discover, you could turn $150 cash back into $300. It pays to Discover. See terms at discover.com credit card. This show is brought to you by Public. If you are looking for simple yet sophisticated investing, Public.com says click on over and check them out. From stocks to options, bonds to crypto, it is all there. You can even earn an industry-leading 5.1% APY on your cash. Public is trusted by millions of investors, and NerdWallet just gave Public 4.6 stars and calls it an impressive experience. Sign up in two minutes at public.com. All you're investing in one place. This is a paid advertisement for Public Investing 5.1% APY as of June 17, 2024, and is subject to change. NerdWallet overall rating 4.6 out of 5 as of May 2024. Full disclosures in the podcast description. OK, so here's where we are right now. There's enough misinformation out there that President Biden held a press conference and he called out Donald Trump and other Republicans by name for spreading it. And FEMA, the Federal Disaster Relief Agency, has a whole website set up specifically to debunk disaster-related misinformation. I kind of wonder if you could tell me a little bit more about how this started. Like, what was the first rumor you saw? One
Speaker 1
of the first ones that I ran across in large volume was the idea that Kamala Harris had said that the federal government only has $750 to give to the victims of Hurricane Helene. Where did you see it? On X. You know, I spend less time on X than I used to, but X is really the place where the misinformation seemed to metastasize and just, you know, fill up people's feeds. X is where the really sort of political misinformation and particularly about the government's response to Helene, took root and just dug in.
Speaker 2
So where did this $750 thing come from? Well,
Speaker 1
like so many bits of what we call misinformation, there's a kernel of truth in it. In this case, a very strong and compelling kernel of truth, which is a video clip of Kamala Harris saying to Helene victims. And the federal relief and assistance that we have been providing has included FEMA providing $750 for folks who need immediate needs being met, such as food. But then what happens is in the post that went viral, that's where it cuts off. And then, you know, you can shape how people process a video like that, how they interpret it with the caption you put on it or with the text of your post.
