Social media is simultaneously at its best and worst in the midst of a major disaster. Those in the path of danger use Facebook to broadcast their safety — or to post calls for help. Others follow the near real-time stream of news for updates, or to organize ways to help those affected.
[Harvey may force 30,000 people into shelters while flooding will linger, officials warn]
And then there are the people who use a natural disaster to try to make a hoax go viral. It is a relentless and inevitable aspect of what happens online during a major disaster.
As the aftermath of Harvey continues to unfold along the Texas coast, we are rounding up all of the hoaxes and unverified viral stories we can find about it.
The shark picture is fake
Any time you see a picture of a shark swimming down a street — or in a subway station, or what have you — after a major flooding event, be suspicious. Fake shark pictures, often the work of photo editing, are the most inevitable visual viral hoax in a disaster like this, to the point that it’s almost become a meme. And Harvey was no exception:
The shark is not swimming down the street. It was not swimming down the (same) street during Hurricane Matthew. It wasn’t swimming in the aftermath of Sandy. And most of the other pictures of sharks swimming where people were are fake, too.
Because of their popularity, these shark images are usually quickly debunked. But as the tweet we’ve highlighted shows, part of the reason it’s a popular hoax is because people seem to fall for it, every time. This tweet has more than 6,000 retweets as of Monday morning.
Maybe some day there will be a real photo of a real shark swimming down a flooded street after a disaster. But the one you’ve seen is almost definitely fake.
This is not a photo of Houston’s airport
A dramatic photograph circulating on Twitter appeared to show several planes floating in a deep lake that was once an airport. The airport pictured here is LaGuardia in New York, and it’s a mock-up, meant to show the potential effect of climate change on the transportation hub by 2100, based on data from Climate Central.
Houston’s airports are both closed Monday, with passengers basically stranded there until conditions improve. The roads to both airports — Bush Intercontinental and Hobby — flooded Sunday because of Harvey, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Obama is not serving food to evacuees in Texas right now
A viral, now-deleted tweet claimed to show former president Barack Obama serving hot meals to those evacuated from the floods in Texas.
“Something you’ll never see Trump do: Obama is in Texas serving meals!,” the tweet read. While the photo is real, the context is fake — it’s not a recent photo of Obama, and it has nothing to do with the former president’s response to Harvey.
As my colleague Gene Park pointed out on Twitter, the photo is old — from Thanksgiving 2015, when Obama and his family served meals at a homeless shelter.
This phone number won’t connect you with the National Guard
A couple of viral copy-paste memes circulating around Facebook and Twitter tells those in the Houston area to call a 1-800 number if they find themselves in an emergency situation because of Harvey. The number does not connect callers to the National Guard, as the message is designed to imply, but instead to a private insurance company.
Here are a few of the hundreds of shares for this hoax that we found on a quick Facebook search Monday morning:
On Sunday, the Houston Police told residents to call 911 in an emergency, or one of two nonemergency numbers to request help evacuating if you are safe.
This incredible photo of a family escaping floodwaters is not from Harvey
It’s an evocative photo that has been circulating on Twitter to show the impact of Harvey on Houston’s residents. The photo itself is real — however, it’s not from Harvey. It’s from an earlier round of devastating flooding, in 2016.
Corpus Christi didn’t restrict reentry to the city
The official Twitter account of the city of Corpus Christi debunked a fake, copy-paste meme circulating on Facebook that appeared to be from a city official, warning residents of reentry restrictions in the coastal Texas city after Harvey.
Earlier, the account debunked a rumor claiming the city was going to turn off all utilities in anticipation of the storm.
Katie Couric’s friend didn’t get a visit from an alligator
Couric was duped over the weekend by a photo that appeared to show a curious alligator paying someone a visit amid Harvey flooding. The photo, however, is from April, snapped by a Fort Bend County sheriff’s deputy.
This post has been updated multiple times. We will continue to update this post as we inevitably spot more viral hoaxes.
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