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US Sen. Thom Tillis, also a Republican, echoed Corbin’s comments on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on CBS News on Sunday. He said many of the claims are “not even from people on the ground” and complicate rescue and recovery operations.
“It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their life,” Tillis said. “Quite honestly, most of what I’ve seen out there is a distraction and not helping the core of the effort right here, which is to save lives and start rebuilding.”
Panditharatne told BI that the spread of misinformation can “dissuade people from seeking the assistance that they need in this time of crisis.”
“It’s perfectly legitimate to express an opinion or criticize the sufficiency of a response, but a number of the claims that we are seeing, particularly from high profile actors and politicians, are baseless, and they’re contradicting verifiable facts or unsubstantiated by evidence,” she said. “Where that is the case, I think it can divert public information and resources and demoralize officials on the ground.”
In a crisis, there may be gaps in available information, creating a vacuum for misinformation to “flood in to fill the void,” Panditharatne said. However, she added that’s not an excuse.
“I think anyone like Musk, who has a significant influence over the information ecosystem, should feel a sense of responsibility to promote information that doesn’t undermine people’s ability to access the aid that they need or undermine officials’ response to a crisis,” she said.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for X also did not immediately respond.