California Governor Gavin Newsom. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
California Governor Gavin Newsom has accused billionaire Elon Musk of spreading misinformation about the actions of local authorities to combat the massive fires that have engulfed Los Angeles. This was reported by AFP.
Musk’s criticism and Newsom’s response
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, accused the California government of “poor governance”, which, according to him, caused problems with the supply of water to fight the fires.
“These false claims have been refuted by our firefighters,” Newsom responded in a post on the X(formerly Twitter) platform. In the post, he shared a video of a firefighter denying a water shortage, claiming that there was enough water in numerous tanks.
The governor also accused Musk of “encouraging robberies” after the billionaire shared a false post claiming that California’s democratic government had “legalised theft”.
The role of social media in disinformation
After Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, the platform was criticised for not doing enough to combat the spread of fake news. Musk’s account has more than 212 million followers, which significantly increases the reach of his statements.
In the midst of the fires, the platform circulated numerous messages blaming California’s “progressive” policies, including programmes to increase diversity among firefighters in Los Angeles.
Disinformation is also actively spread on other platforms, such as Facebook. In particular, the authorities have refuted false posts calling for people to come to California to take part in “post-fire clean-up”.
“We want to make it clear that there is no such possibility,” said the California Department of Fire Protection.
