How extremists and politicians exploited Hurricane Helene to spread antisemitic hate & election conspiracies

ISD analysts examined how mis- and disinformation about Hurricane Helene spread online and found that antisemitic hate and election conspiracies were promoted by politicians and extremists, exploiting an information void in a time of community crisis, and sometimes even inciting violence.

When it comes to antisemitism in general, this “alarming trend” is “being included now in false narratives around pretty much any breaking news event,” said Isabelle Frances-Wright, ISD’s Director of Technology and Society, to the BBC. US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees, as well as other local public officials, have been directly targeted with false, antisemitic claims suggesting that the government is withholding disaster relief funds and has resulted in credible threats, as observed by ISD analysts. These findings were covered by the Washington Post.  

ISD’s Executive Director for AMEA, Moustafa Ayad, provided further commentary and background for PBS‘s on-air coverage about US extremists groups using the weather event to further “fissure our society.” Other actors taking advantage of the recent storms include hostile states such as Russia, he tells the Guardian, explaining how they exploit times of crisis to undermine Western democracies.

In a BBC interview, he explained that crises fuel false narratives on issues like migration and Ukraine, which are now tied to key US election concerns. “I don’t know how prepared we are as a society for the misinformation we’ll face,” he said.