Following the disasters caused by Hurricane Milton, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida on Wednesday October 9th as a Category 3 storm, hundreds of images and videos of the severe flooding and extreme winds circulated on social media. Some of the content, however, was used to spread false information about the storm.
A series of digitally manipulated images showed Disney World submerged under floodwaters and went viral on social media. They led to widespread confusion and concern among fans and tourists. The images, which depict iconic attractions like Cinderella’s Castle and Space Mountain surrounded by water, have drawn attention for their striking visuals. Still, Disney officials have confirmed they are entirely fake.
Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reposted the images on Thursday, October 10th on their Telegram channel, with the post having over 600,000 views as of Friday, as reported by UK news outlet The Independent. “Social media users post photos of Disneyland in Florida flooded by Hurricane Milton,” RIA’s post was captioned.
Many social media users shared the images, expressing shock and disbelief that such a beloved tourist destination could be in peril. However, a Disney spokesperson issued a statement clarifying the situation. “We can confirm that Disney World is open and operating as usual. The images circulating online are not real and do not depict any current flooding at our parks. We encourage our guests to verify information through official channels before sharing.”
🌧️🇺🇸 Fake News Alert! Disney World remains unflooded after Hurricane Milton. Viral images of submerged Cinderella Castle? Purely AI-generated fantasy. While the storm caused some disruptions, Disney parks are back in action, delighting guests right on schedule! pic.twitter.com/gOlcNB8Oqk
— Talk AI Today (@TalkAIToday) October 10, 2024
According to the news agency AFP, the images showing the outskirts of the completely flooded Walt Disney World Resort castle were generated by artificial intelligence as corroborated by Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California at Berkeley, who said the likelihood of all three images being generated by AI is high.
“There are obvious and telling structural flaws in all the images, including inconsistent reflections in the water,” the expert explained to AFP. “Our models trained to distinguish between real and AI-generated images mark these images as likely AI-generated. There are some clear differences between the images shared online and the authentic photos of Cinderella Castle, such as the location and number of spires, structural details and the type of lampposts.”
On Friday October 11th, the company announced that its Walt Disney World theme parks, Disney Springs and miniature golf courses were reopened after weathering the storm. “Our hearts go out to our fellow Floridians who were affected by this storm,” they reported via their official website.
There are some features that can help detect if content was created or manipulated by this technology. Sometimes the AI makes mistakes in small details or can create repetitive patterns. If the image has something that looks “weird” or “too perfect”, it may indicate that it is fake.
They may also have strange details such as extra fingers, slightly malformed objects, the shadows not matching, or the light too artificial. On Google it is possible to find deepfake image analyzers, some of them free, such as FotoForensics, Hugging Face AI Art Detector, Illuminarty AI-generated Content Detection, among others, which have specialised tools to find digital manipulation patterns.
US airlines under heat for potential price gouging
During the same week, many people trying to evacuate Florida ahead of Milton’s arrival complained of price gouging practices by some airlines. Price gouging refers to price hikes on essential goods during emergencies such as hurricanes. In Florida, the practice is prohibited by law.
“I’m calling on the airlines and other companies to provide as much service as possible to accommodate evacuations and not to engage in price gouging — to just do it on the level,” Biden said during a hurricane briefing.
US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg also warned airlines about price gouging, saying the service is “keeping a close eye on flights in and out of areas affected by Hurricane Milton to make sure airlines are not charging excessively increasing fares.” Jeremy Bingaman, a music-industry podcaster, shared on his X account a picture showing a clear price difference between United Airlines on one hand, and American and Southwest on the other.
United Airlines Bingaman’s post saying the proposed itinerary was invalid, as Tampa Airport was to close on Tuesday. “We implemented fare caps on Sunday. Since then, the average price paid for a one-way, economy-class ticket to our hubs from the impacted Florida markets was below $500”, United spokesperson Leslie Scott stated.
