California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused tech billionaire Elon Musk of spreading “lies” about the state’s response to deadly wildfires in Los Angeles, escalating their online feud over misinformation.
President-elect Donald Trump and Musk – the Tesla and SpaceX owner is set to play a key role in advising the incoming administration – have stepped up criticism of the governor’s handling of the devastating fires, which killed at least 24 people. and thousands of people have been displaced. ,
In a post on his social media platform
“(Musk) has been exposed by firefighters for his lies,” Newsom posted late Sunday, along with a video clip in which the tycoon is asking a firefighter if water availability is an issue.
The firefighter replied that there was water in “several reservoirs”, and said that combating large-scale fires required efforts with water trucks.
In a separate controversy over the weekend, Newsom accused Musk of “lying and promoting looting” after the billionaire promoted a post on X that falsely claimed the governor and his fellow Democrats had “criminalized looting.” “has been excluded from the category of.”
“It is illegal – as it always has been,” Newsom responded, amid concerns about looting in areas where people were forced to flee the fire.
“Bad actors will be arrested and prosecuted,” he said.
– Viral, misleading video –
Musk’s personal account on X, which has more than 212 million followers, has become increasingly influential and has often come under criticism for amplifying misinformation.
The platform — formerly called Twitter, which Musk is planning to buy for $44 billion in 2022 — has seen an explosion of right-wing misinformation about deadly wildfires, researchers say.
Even though months of dry weather and high winds created optimal conditions for wildfires, narratives on X blamed state policies such as practices to increase diversity in the Los Angeles fire force.
A viral video debunked by misinformation watchdog NewsGuard falsely claimed that fire department officials were strictly using women’s handbags to fight fires because their resources were being diverted to “vigilant causes” and Ukraine was forced to go to war. Was put in help.
But entertainment news site TMZ quoted local officials as saying that the water-filled pouches seen in the video were actually “canvas bags” carried by firefighters as opposed to pulling hoses to extinguish small flames. They were easy to use. ,
Wildfire misinformation was also circulating on other platforms, including Meta-owned Facebook.
Authorities recently warned about a false Facebook post that urged people to travel to California to join cleanup crews in areas affected by wildfires.
“We would like to clarify that no such opportunity is available,” the state Department of Fire Protection wrote on its website.
Meta triggered a global backlash last week when it announced it was ending third-party fact-checking in the United States and introducing a crowd-sourced moderation method similar to X.
Disinformation researchers have criticized Meta’s policy change, which came less than two weeks before Trump took office, warning that it risks opening the door to false narratives.
Facebook currently pays to use fact checking on about 80 organizations globally, as well as on WhatsApp and Instagram. AFP currently works with Facebook’s fact-checking scheme in 26 languages.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
