After July 2025 flash flooding in Texas, false social media posts claimed celebrities donated money or assisted in rescues, citing examples such as Elon Musk donating $7 million and Robert Plant visiting the flood site. Some posts used AI-generated photos and received popular engagement, leading many readers to mistake the anecdotes as real. Snopes analyzed 15 such stories, all previously fact-checked, and traced most to Facebook pages and websites based outside the U.S. The posts linked to external sites that published blog articles and sold advertising space for profit. Two ad tech firms hosting ads on those sites offered limited oversight. Meta removed and restricted offending accounts.
The Facebook posts claimed celebrities were donating money or taking part in rescue efforts, ranging from fictional stories about tech billionaire Elon Musk donating $7 million to Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant visiting the flood site, for example. Some posts included photos generated by artificial-intelligence (AI) software, and, based on their comments and popularity, many readers mistook the anecdotes as real. Snopes analyzed 15 such stories, all of which were the subject of individual fact checks in the past.
With links in their captions or comments, the posts intended to drive people to websites outside of Facebook, where site administrators sold advertising space for profit. Those websites contained blog articles with more details about the alleged charitable acts by celebrities. To learn about who profits from the misinformation, we reached out to two ad tech firms - Adhub.media in Singapore and Netlink Online Corporation in Vietnam - that host advertisements on several such websites.
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