The far right's latest ploy to spread misinformation about Hurricane Helene and FEMA.

Charlie Kirk seemed outraged. Flooding from Hurricane Helene devastated Asheville, North Carolina and surrounding areas, killing at least 72 people in Buncombe County. But what seemed to anger the right-wing influencer the most was a text message he allegedly received from an unnamed acquaintance that claimed Federal Emergency Management Agency staff were taking a laissez-faire approach to disaster relief .

“Charlie – my sources in western North Carolina tell me that FEMA workers are staying in one of the nicest hotels and only work until 5 p.m.,” reads the alleged text Kirk sent to his 3.5 million followers on Friday tweeted X. “And they won’t work weekends. My parents are being told that if they don’t get back to them by 5pm today they will have to wait until Monday.”

“Is this true @FEMA?” Kirk added. “Americans are dying, but FEMA workers treat their job like a 9-5 government beat job?!?”

Slate reached out to FEMA, which responded to a barrage of conspiracy theories from former President Donald Trump and others about these claims in recent days. The agency hasn't contacted us yet, but it's a bit busy. Or we could just trust someone texting Charlie Kirk.

This tweet format has become noticeably popular on the Redpilled Internet. The formula is simple: 1) Post a screenshot of a supposedly real text message, 2) Express outrage, 3) Ask if it's true without actually caring if it's true, and 4) Don't investigate further carry out the matter. It's a newfangled incarnation of a classic, chain email. Pass it on, otherwise no one will know the “truth.”

Elon Musk is a fan of the format and has been tweeting nonstop about FEMA for the past week. “I just received this message from a SpaceX engineer helping on site in North Carolina,” Musk wrote on Friday. The alleged note, which doesn't even include a screenshot of a text message or email, states that FEMA is blocking shipments to Asheville, seizing goods and claiming them as their property.

“It is very real and frightening how much control they have taken to prevent people from helping,” the engineer reportedly said. “We are now prevented from delivering new Starlinks until we get an escort from the fire department. but that may not be enough.”

The accusation: FEMA is preventing Elon Musk's Starlink systems from helping people gain access to the Internet. On its website, the agency notes that there are many rumors about confiscating supplies and refusing donations: “FEMA does not accept donations and/or food from survivors or volunteer organizations. Donations of food, water or other goods are handled by volunteer organizations that specialize in storing, sorting, cleaning and distributing donated items.”

This Twitter outrage format is also being used to spread misinformation about elections. Venture capital investor Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, tweeted that an unnamed friend of his in California once found an empty house with 600 ballots in the mailbox. “How is that possible?” asked Maguire. He further suggested that Antifa may have registered hundreds of people to vote at a single address. (Why should Democrats need to manipulate votes in the safe blue state of California? The mystery continues.)

Right-wing media criticism is based on the uniform idea that journalists lie, make things up and spread narratives, regardless of their truthfulness. In the real world, professional journalists employed by mainstream news outlets must verify information. You can't just accept text messages from unnamed people and proclaim their truth – or credulously ask, “Is this true?” – to launder inflammatory nonsense to the masses. For many on the right, reporters lie, but the random guys texting Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk are telling the truth.

These mysterious text messages from unnamed senders can easily be faked, while journalists are fired, disgraced and often driven to another industry for making up false stories – and rightly so. But there are no real consequences for the influencers who scaremonger and spread lies.

Of course, they don't care what's true and what's not. No one serious about facts would receive a text message with questionable veracity and pass it on to millions to see for themselves its veracity. They don't care if it's true – they just want you to think it Is.