I first heard about the Burning Man Ebola rumors from a friend who knew it wasn't true but told me just as a sidenote to our conversation about our friends who are now stuck at Burning Man.
A few minutes later he messaged me this story from Forbes about that rumor
I don't think it needs to be stated that the last thing that needs to be spread about what is a disasterous situation is more fear.
And so it's worth taking a look at how this happened and why.
And Forbes is clear. It was Twitter. Twitter at minimum allowed this disinformation to spread.
The question of why this lie was started is not important and I actually don't even have any personal feelings on why someone would do that.
The bottom line is that it should have been extinguished. While Burningman is truthfully a handful of people on the greater scheme of things with only 70,000 people involved, the truth is that it's international news and always has been.
It's something the world examined from a far and it's extremely well known as an event, as a social happening, as a form of a BFD in the information and social media space.
With the actual disaster taking place of the alkaline mud that is going to trap people for likely a week given the amount of rain and the reality of the ground conditions which are very unique to the Playa it is a news story that should be a priority for teams at Twitter.
And this rumors, this dangerous falsehood was allowed to bubble up to the point that Forbes is reporting on it. The rumor trended on X and wasn't slapped down and snuffed out.
Below are screenshots of tweets, one of which uses a name that includes "CDC" which is ominous and deeply disturbing. This is disinformation, propaganda and was intended for some harm for some reason. Again, I really can't even conjecture about what the malicious intent actually was but it's very clear that these are not "joke" tweets. There is nothing funny about the content there. This doesn't have the feel of a prank but something much darker.
Of note, there is now reader added context that the original Tweet is false. It came much too late .
And sure, maybe Burningman means nothing to you. I went to Burningman for 10 years. Many of my friends are stuck out there so I care alot, but this post isn't about that.
What I am offering is a microcosm and a micro event that is pretty meaningless to many people and yet Musk's X is allowing this dangerous information to run rampant.
What happens when it's a bigger issue? What happens when millions of people's lives are at stake (hypothetical but definitely not hard to imagine)
X is a threat. Elon Musk is a threat.
I will leave it with that.
