The claim

The rumor mill about the train accident in Ohio has now also reached German-speaking countries.
Some of the questions/claims from Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and user queries - Are the smoke cloud photos real?
- Information is withheld and journalists are arrested
- the media does not report, the UFO story is intended to distract from it
- large areas of land and the Ohio River are said to have been contaminated

Our conclusion

– The aerial view of the circular cloud of smoke is authentic.
– Only one journalist was briefly arrested for disrupting a governor's press conference.
– There are many media reports about the accident and its consequences for the city of East Palestine.
– No signs of air and soil contamination. It's different with the Ohio River: the further consequences are being monitored.


What happened in East Palestine, what is the current status?

On February 3, a train carrying hazardous materials derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, likely due to a mechanical problem . Five wagons carrying vinyl chloride were then deliberately burned in a “controlled explosion,” resulting in a temporary evacuation of the area. Residents reported suffering from headaches and skin rashes in the days following the derailment.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

“Confusing and seemingly changing messages from government and railroad officials have shaken public confidence,” writes the New York Times about the current mood in the city. A trust that had already been shaken before, through decades of economic stagnation and the closure of local production companies. “Rumors and suspicions about the incident are circulating on Facebook and TikTok accounts across the country; in the city they are also exchanged among neighbors in backyards and through the open windows of pickup trucks.”

The authorities have now the all-clear : 456 houses have so far been examined for chemical residues and have found nothing. There would also be no critical residues in the air and water. Meanwhile, pictures of dead pets and farm animals are circulating on social media. And many residents complain about a pungent smell. Pictures of a citizens' meeting show angry people. The railway company Norfolk Southern, which actually wanted to calm things down, stayed away from the meeting.

In the meantime, environmental activist Erin Bronckovich (known for the film with Julia Roberts) has also intervened:

The images of the smoke cloud

We've been monitoring the issue for a while, but we only recently received user requests asking for pictures of the smoke cloud. Since the Ukraine War at the latest, there have been a lot of hybrid fakes - real images that are placed in the wrong context - and AI-generated images are also becoming more and more common. That's why people become more and more suspicious when pictures look too perfect. The same applies to (Russian) disinformation campaigns. Good this way!

Mimikama presents its first social media stand up:

The Internet is for P*rn – a reckoning with the last 10 years of social media
When?
February 23, 2023
Where?
Rosensteingasse 39
1170 Vienna
Tickets?
HERE!
Click here for more info

On February 14th, an aerial photo from an airplane of the area around the accident site appeared on Reddit: You can see a black, circular cloud in an otherwise white cloud cover. Caption: "In-flight passenger photo near East Palestine, Ohio...Chemical fire after train derails."

Passenger photo while plane flew near East Palestine, Ohio … chemical fire after train derailed

The fact-checking portal Snopes immediately looked into the recording after it made it to the front page of Reddit due to countless views and likes (currently 142k points). Without further information, Snopes initially classified the image as “unproven.” However, today the article has been revised : There are many more aerial photographs of this cloud: photos, videos, satellite images. These aren't all that pretty, but they prove: Yes, the cloud was very easy to see from the plane. Current status on Snopes: “true”.

Rumor: Information is being withheld and journalists are being arrested

Rumor mill Twitter

The situation in East Palestine is “complicated” and not everything that has been announced by the authorities and the railway company over the past two weeks has been helpful. But fortunately there is the “fourth pillar” in a stable democracy: the media, which reports events independently and truthfully – at least if they can fulfill this central mandate and report.

However, since February 13, more and more claims have emerged on social media that media representatives in East Palestine are being prevented from doing their work or even being arrested. An example from Instagram : "This is probably the worst thing that could happen short of a nuclear bomb, and no one is talking about it - reporters who try to get in will be arrested."

USA Today looked at these allegations and concluded: “false”:

No journalists were arrested for trying to “get in.” A single journalist was arrested at a news conference for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine after reporting live while the governor spoke, but the charges have since been dropped. National journalism and news organizations that track arrests of reporters said they were not aware of any additional arrests of journalists in East Palestine.

Fact check : Post misleads on number of journalists arrested in East Palestine, Ohio

Evan Lambert, a News Nation reporter, continued to report live, disrupting the conference on February 8th when police had already told him to be quiet. He was therefore arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing. Those charges have since been dropped. No other similar incidents or arrests are known.

More rumors and conspiracy theories about the disaster in East Palestine

The news portal USA-Today has conducted further research into claims that are currently being spread online:

  • The government has sealed off East Palestine: a state of emergency has been declared over the city and a temporary evacuation has been ordered. But there was no sign that citizens were prevented from entering and leaving the city.
  • The evacuated people are not allowed to return home: No, the governor said at the press conference on February 8 that people are now safe and allowed to go home.
  • The disaster was planned or a false flag action: False , there are no signs of it.
  • The train company Norfolk Southern should only pay affected people $5 each: No, it's $1,000 and a fund of 1 million .
  • Fish and grazing animals are reported to have died hundreds of miles away: there is no sign of damage to wildlife or livestock on land. However, 3,500 fish are said to have died near the disaster and the contaminated water (butyl acrylate) of the Ohio River is still being monitored.

The fact that the media would not report on the catastrophe in East Palestine is not very difficult to refute: between yesterday afternoon (February 16, 2023, 1:00 p.m.) and this morning (February 17, 2023, 9:00 a.m.) Google Trends 376 new ones News article on the topic in the USA alone. And a global search on Google News returns over 2 million results. That's not nothing!

Google Trends: East Palestine, Ohio
The Google Trends search shows: The topic is currently being written about

Conclusion:

  • The aerial view of the circular cloud of smoke is authentic. ✔️
  • Only one journalist was briefly arrested for disrupting a governor's press conference. ❌
  • There are many media reports about the accident and its consequences for the city of East Palestine. ❌
  • No signs of air or soil contamination. Butyl acrylate in the Ohio River. ❌/✔️
Sources: USA-Today , Snopes , ohio.gov , nscorp.com , BBC , NY Times , NPR , lancasterfarming.com , Google Trends
More fact checks this week:
SCAM on Twitter with AI image of earthquake disaster
Pilots' ECGs unrelated to COVID vaccination
COVID-19 vaccines do not cause AIDS!

Note: This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication
.
The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic.