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How the East Palestine train derailment fueled fear on TikTok

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  perrie-halpern  •  last year  •  16 comments

By:   Daysia Tolentino and Morgan Sung

How the East Palestine train derailment fueled fear on TikTok
The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has turned TikTok into a hotbed of misinformation and conspiracy theories, prompting people beyond the region to worry about potential repercussions of the chemical release.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



The aftermath of the trail derailment has concerned environmentalists, rural Americans who already feel "forgotten" and those who are distrustful of the government. Responses from public officials have been confusing, inadequate or slow for some people, creating the perfect conditions for misinformation to spread on TikTok — a platform that a lot of people have turned to for updates.

The 150-car train containing the highly flammable and toxic chemical vinyl chloride derailed in East Palestine on Feb. 3. To avoid an explosion, Norfolk Southern Railway executed a controlled release of the vinyl chloride on Feb. 6 and ordered residents to evacuate because the fumes could be deadly if inhaled.

Two days after the release, Ohio officials informed residents that they could return home. The Environmental Protection Agency did not find "exceedances for residential air quality standards" in the 533 local homes that it tested as of Feb. 19. Still, nearby residents complained of health issues and suspicious-looking water following the derailment, with some taking to TikTok to express their concerns.

230206-Ohio-train-derailment-smoke-aerial-ac-613p-06c94a.jpg Parts of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on fire on Feb. 4.Gene J. Puskar / AP file

"There is certainly a difference in the way that people hear what the government is telling them and how that translates into their own lives," said Rachel Dowty Beech, a senior lecturer in the emergency management program at the University of New Haven.

She added that part of the communication problem between people and government officials lies in the differences in safety "definitions formed by chemists and experts, and the definitions of the people seeing the effects." When government assurances of safety feel dissonant from the experiences of residents on the ground, people feel distrustful and frustrated.

"If the local community isn't trusting the government, it's more likely that they're going to find their own explanations with each other than they are going to go to a scientific authority," Dowty Beech said.

The disaster in Ohio also tapped into some lingering fears that arose at the start of the pandemic. She said that since the beginning of the pandemic, many people have been anxious about local catastrophes spreading into broader areas.

TikTok users have been claiming that acid rain has made its way from Ohio to various states on the East Coast, using the smell of the air, oily film over water and residue on their cars as "evidence." However, Dowty Beech said hydrochloric acid, which is the byproduct of the vinyl chloride that was burned, does not typically get picked up by the air current or create acid rain. The EPA states that acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere, typically from the burning of fossil fuels.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation told NBC News that it has not detected an increase in rain acidity in the state, despite some claims on TikTok in recent days.

"The air mass which passed over the Ohio train derailment and fire has long since passed New York," a representative for the agency said.

Conroy said that the inadequate communication from public officials has created a "data void" that many "bad faith actors are more than willing to fill." Conspiracy theories involving public health and environmental disasters are not new, she said — unfounded rumors of "chemtrails," fluoridated water and nuclear power continue to proliferate online despite overwhelming evidence proving them to be false.

"There's not a substantive understanding that the everyday person would have where they can easily debunk these things, or even understand things when they have been debunked," she said. "And so there were already large groups of people who are primed to believe in yet another conspiracy theory about yet another incident that taps into these existing conspiracy theories in a really robust way."

There's this brand of conspiracies that dominates a lot of American imagination that requires absolutely no evidence at all.

— Yotam Ophir,assistant professor of communication at the University at Buffalo

Many conspiracy theories started and spread on more fringe spaces, such as in closed Facebook groups or on 4chan. TikTok is uniquely poised to bring theories, even if they're completely unfounded, to a broader audience by continuing to promote highly engaging content.

Yotam Ophir, an assistant professor of communication at the University at Buffalo and an expert on health, science and political misinformation, said that newer conspiracy theories are fueled by attention, not research. Decades ago, conspiracy theorists meticulously collected and analyzed whatever evidence they could find to try to explain the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he said, and although they were wrong, "at least they were looking for evidence."

He compared it to a recent TikTok that cited the 2022 Netflix movie "White Noise," an absurdist comedy-drama about a similar train derailment, as "evidence" that the incident was "planned." The video featured text superimposed on clips of someone driving around in the rain, and used a TikTok sound that has been used in horror and true crime content.

"There's this brand of conspiracies that dominates a lot of American imagination that requires absolutely no evidence at all," Ophir said. "The question is why social media is such a useful vehicle for spreading it, and the answer is that those videos are interesting. And then we get to the algorithms that decide which post we're going to see on social media prioritize engagement, not necessarily the weight of the evidence that people bring or the factuality or anything like that."

He also questioned whether the TikTok users posting conspiracy theory content are genuinely interested in finding "hidden realities," or if they're just motivated to go viral. Wilder theories tend to be more engaging, he said, which is highly rewarded on social media. He noted that there have been conspiracies proven to be true, such as the Iran Contra affair and the Watergate scandal.

"They were discovered by academics, by journalists, by people working in professions that have the tools and integrity and systematic support to identify stories like that," Ophir said. "They cannot and will never be revealed by a guy with an iPhone in California."


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Kavika
Professor Principal
1  Kavika     last year

The ignorance is amazing, apparently, these people and the majority of Americans have no idea how many derailments there are every year with some of them involving hazmat.

The number on average is around 1700 derailments per year.

 
 
 
pat wilson
Professor Participates
1.1  pat wilson  replied to  Kavika @1    last year

But they were all planned...jrSmiley_78_smiley_image.gif /s

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
1.1.1  devangelical  replied to  pat wilson @1.1    last year

they're all biden's fault because he was POTUS when they happened... /s

good thing trump made the railroads great again. f'n moron.

 
 
 
Ronin2
Professor Quiet
1.2  Ronin2  replied to  Kavika @1    last year

Unfortunately many of us do know how many derailments there are every year. Name how many are this badly mishandled by a check the box unqualified EPA? Name how many result in an ill advised burn off of hazardous material- that ended in explosions and big black clouds of smoke billowing in the air because the idiots doing it didn't check what in the cars around the hazardous material they were burning off? How many bury the tankers and containers that contained hazardous materials inside a town or city limit; and then lay new track right over them? Were the tankers and containers checked for hazardous residue before they were buried? Are they really sure they burned all the material off? Will they be proven wrong first rain storm that comes through and the residue enters the ground water? How many disasters like this were turned down for federal disaster relief funding?

The Brandon administration is more concerned with putting blame on Trump for the derailment; than actually fixing the disaster and getting the people of Palestine, OH the help they need. It is sickening the way leftist pundits have piled on with many blaming the residents of Palestine, OH since they are poor, white, and the majority voted for Trump last election.

It is hypocritical for the left to blast conspiracy theorists while backing the Brandon administration and their pundits that can do nothing but blame Trump; when all evidence shows no decisions he made had anything to do with it.

The train derailment wasn't planned; but it has been mishandled in the extreme.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
1.2.1  Kavika   replied to  Ronin2 @1.2    last year

As usual, your rant has little or nothing to do with my comment. I simply stated that the American public was ignorant of the fact that there are 1700 derailments on average per year and some of them are hazmat. That was it and as usual, you cannot look/read any comment without going on a tangent/rant about your personal complaints some of which you make up. 

Learn how to respond to a comment or you can continue to make a fool of yourself on NT. 

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
3  seeder  Perrie Halpern R.A.    last year

Thread #2 removed for no value and slap fight. Stop it. Only warning.

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
3.1  devangelical  replied to  Perrie Halpern R.A. @3    last year

LOL, sorry I missed it...

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
4  JBB    last year

original

 
 
 
Nerm_L
Professor Expert
5  Nerm_L    last year

The fear frenzy is following the same progression as Times Beach.  After a flurry of expert and layman fear mongering, today there isn't a Times Beach.  A lot of research and money was expended to turn Times Beach into a park.

What's happening in East Palestine is only the tip of the iceberg.  Academic researchers are already preparing grant requests for long term population and environmental studies.  Lawyers are lining up for a share of the litigation.  Politicians and bureaucrats are ramping up rhetoric to call for regulation, reparation, and big government solutions.  And after the fear frenzy really gets going someone will connect dots -- lead water pipes are being replaced with PVC.

The people of East Palestine aren't just victims of a nasty accident.  They're a means to an end.  

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
5.1  cjcold  replied to  Nerm_L @5    last year

So you don't believe in cleaning up superfund sites? 

   They're a means to an end

And the end is cleaning up the messes created by corporate malfeasance. 

Your attempt to denigrate the necessary processes is ludicrous.

 
 

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