As Spain battles to contain wildfires amidst reports of another heatwave, misleading claims about the response to the blaze and its origins have spread online.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez himself has urged the public to rely on credible information and warned about the spread of false claims.
Speaking in Almería on 13 July following a visit to the site of the fire in Los Gallardos in south-eastern Spain, he called the role of the media "crucial" in combatting "misinformation", adding that the spread of false information can make an emergency more difficult.
Later on, on 27 July, Sánchez thanked news outlets for combating the spread of disinformation about the fires.
"We're seeing lots of fake news, a lot of disinformation about whether the fires were started to build solar power plants, lithium mines, rare earth mines," he said, adding that authorities were investigating the true cause of the emergency. He also said that the climate crisis is causing heatwaves that are making the wildfires even worse.
Spain is no stranger to false theories surrounding wildfires. Last year, claims spread that wildfires in the country were started deliberately so that developers could use the land to rebuild, despite ultimately being untrue.
This year, many of the same narratives have resurfaced, alongside new false claims about the...
A fabricated newspaper front page and misleading posts about solar farms are among the claims circulating during Spain’s devastating wildfire season. As Spain battles to contain wildfires amidst ...