this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
810 points (99.3% liked)

News

23367 readers
3129 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Storms Helene and Milton have triggered rise of misinformation stoked by Trump and fellow Republicans

Meteorologists tracking the advance of Hurricane Milton have been targeted by a deluge of conspiracy theories that they were controlling the weather, abuse and even death threats, amid what they say is an unprecedented surge in misinformation as two major hurricanes have hit the US.

A series of falsehoods and threats have swirled in the two weeks since Hurricane Helene tore through six states causing several hundred deaths, followed by Milton crashing into Florida on Wednesday.

The extent of the misinformation, which has been stoked by Donald Trump and his followers, has been such that it has stymied the ability to help hurricane-hit communities, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).


🗳️ Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] oxjox@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Geico has not said anything publicly, one way or the other. I would generally lean towards believing Snopes but, with such little evidence other than "someone told us otherwise", I could very easily see this being retracted. I mean, they could at least mention the name of the "corporate spokesperson".

I think we should all be more skeptical of everything we read. It's not at all rare for a reputable organization to retract a statement, as you've suggested yourself.

I wrote that comment on my lunch break at work and, of the immediate links that came up when I searched for a supporting article, Snopes was the most readily available and reliable source I had at hand. It's a site with a long history of debunking claims via thorough research, and yes, they cite their sources. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Sources." It's just above the author's credit.

If you've found any evidence of Geico dropping coverage of all Cybertrucks (not just individual vehicles/owners, whom may be dropped for a myriad of reasons), I'm eager to hear it. In the meantime, enjoy checking any of these links that all say the same thing - that the author reached out to Geico, and Geico confirmed to them that they do cover the Cybertruck.

Of course, there's always the option of just calling Geico for yourself. But debunking the same rumor over and over again is exhausting, and I feel bad for whoever is having to answer all these calls. At this point, Geico said their part. The burden of proof is now on those making the "dropping coverage" claim.