CLAIM: Two images of beams of light reaching up the sky prove recent wildfires on Maui were started by an “energy weapon.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Both images are unrelated to the fires on Maui. One photo shows the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from a California military base in May 2018. The other shows a flare from a controlled burn at an oil refinery in Ohio the same year.
THE FACTS: As images and videos showing the wreckage caused by the deadly wildfires spread on social media, some users are sharing unrelated photos in an effort to spread a baseless conspiracy theory that the cause was nefarious.
In one image, a long beam of light extends from the ground into a bright blue sky.
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A Facebook post that shared it stated: “This photo is circulating social media. Apparently this beam was captured before the Hawaii fires. Can anyone confirm?”
But the image has nothing to do with the Maui wildfires. It was taken during the May 22, 2018 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in California at what was then called Vandenberg Air Force Base. The photo was originally posted on SpaceX’s Instagram account.
Other posts are misrepresenting a photo of what appears to be a fireball on the horizon with a beam of light coming out of it.
In an Instagram video, a man claims that the image “shows a laser beam coming out of the sky directly targeting the city.” He then falsely claims the Maui wildfires are linked to a long-running conspiracy theory about a weaponized government...
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