11.01.2012

Beware of False Tweets and Pics - Especially During Natural Disasters

The Washington Post's Paul Farhi writes of all the false photos and "news reports" that circulated this week during Hurricane Sandy -- including a tweet that said the New York Stock Exchange was under 3 feet of water.

Turns out the false NYSE tweet was sent by someone with a screen name of "Comfortablysmug," Farhi writes. Further sleuthing uncovered Comfortablysmug's identity. Farhi writes: "BuzzFeed.com first identified Comfortablysmug as Shashank Tripathi, a campaign manager for Republican congressional candidate Christopher Wight (N.Y.). Tuesday night, Wight’s campaign said Tripathi had resigned from the campaign as a result of his tweets."

The Atlantic's Alexis C. Madrigal also writes about sorting the real Sandy photos from the fakes.

What were some of your favorite (real) photos published on news sites of the storm's devastation?

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