The DANA that affected the Valencian Community and other areas of Spain on October 29, 2024 sparked a misinformation crisis. In Maldita.es we have reviewed more than 110 hoaxes and misinformation what have been shared and viralized on social networks that have not taken specific or sufficient measures to face them. In the case of Twitter (now), las Community Notes that allow users to add context to misleading or false tweets they have not been enough.
This shows it an analysis of 176 tweets that They amplified 65 of the hoaxes what They circulated through X between October 30 and November 25 and that were denied by Maldita.es. The research reveals that only 8.5% of these publications they have a community note. The rest without notejust a 25% of them have a note that it was proposed but it is not visible. In general, the Posts to which context is added are the most viral. Some of the accounts that publish these hoaxes They are super spreaders (very popular and unreliable accounts). Furthermore, a 45.9% of them are verified in X with the blue tick, something that It is available with the paid versionbut that gives a false sense of legitimacy and positions them better on the platform.
Tweet with a video which is said to be from DANA, but it’s a hoax: It was posted before the floods and was shared by a user from India.
X relies on Community Notes to combat misinformation, but only 8.5% of hoaxes about DANA debunked by Maldita.es they have a
X has a serious misinformation problemalthough his owner Elon Musk try positioning it as a substitute for traditional media. The strategy to control false or misleading content on the platform includes Community Notesa system that allows registered collaborators add context (additional information, links, etc.) to tweets that may be false. If enough contributors with different points of view rate a note as useful, this is shown just below of the publication.
But various experts have warned about the lack of methodology of that system and about their limits to cover all hoaxes that circulate on the platform. Something we have seen with the disinformation circulating in X about DANA: an analysis of Maldita.es of 176 tweets published between October 30 and November 25, 2024 that amplify hoaxes about the floods reveals that only 15 of them (which accumulate 17 million views) they have a community notethat is to say, and 8.5%.
Tweet that states that the X in cars means that there are dead people inside, but it isn’t true: The National Police points out that the symbol marks cars that have been inspected.
On the other hand, the 161 tweets without note (91.5%) that amplify hoaxes about DANA accumulate in total more than 53 million views. Of them, only 25% have a proposed grade which is not visible. This is because they need more reviews from collaborators so that they are validated and displayed. For example, it’s tweeted that says that “There are 6,000 missing and 1,891 dead for DANA” has a proposed note not visible. The link redirects to our articlewhere we explain that There is no evidence to support this claim. and that, at the time of publication, the official figures were 11 missing and 219 dead.
Tweet that speaks of 6,000 missing and 1,891 dead with a proposed note not visible that redirects to our article.
Tweets with a Community Note are more viral: on average they have more than a million views, while those without a note have an average of 332,920 views.
Los Tweets that have a Community Note vary in topics: from the hoax of the video with audio of “Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch” or the hoax of the skull of a victimuntil the misinformation about the Valencia radar could not detect the DANA. But they do have something in common: they are all viral. These publications have on average about 1,174,973 views. While, the tweets without note they have on average 332,920 views.
Tweet with 4.2 million of views that claims that 700 Bonaire parking tickets have not been used. But it isn’t true: Parking is free and there is no ticket system.
It is important to know that, according to Xlas Community notes do not affect visibility of the publications, that is, a tweet will not be displayed less if context is added. That is why it is possible that Even when a note is included, the publication continues to go viral. What does happen is that Users who have interacted with it are notified (liked, retweeted or replied to) that additional information has been added.
Almost 46% of the accounts that published hoaxes and misinformation about DANA analyzed by Maldita.es are verified in X
The analysis of Maldita.es has detected 135 different X accounts that have shared hoaxes and misinformation about DANA from October 30 to November 25. A 45.9% of these users have verification from X (the blue tick), but be careful, this is no longer a symbol of authenticitygiven that Any paying user can have it the Premium plan of the platform. Among the benefits they enjoy These 62 verified profiles that we have identified that have shared hoaxes about DANA are a “higher priority in responses”, which means they can have greater visibility.
Some of these users are superspreaders: accounts with a great influence and number of followers capable of infecting audiences with unreliable messages and toxic language. For example, the research collected for what least three posts that amplified the same misinformation of the super spreader @CapitanBitcoinwhich has 445,000 followers. These messages, which maintain that The Government is hiding deaths so as not to provide compensation of 72,000 euros to the families of those killed by DANA, They accumulate a total of more than 648,000 views.
At the time of publishing this article, only one of the accounts analyzed (which was not verified) has been suspended: the user shared a video which supposedly showed the Bonaire parking lot, but he was a bully. Also just a tweet analyzed (which had a note) has been removed (according to the X Help Center): the publication contained a video that supposedly showed that the “Comares dam” had opened, which it is not correct.
