It was a similar situation when a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit northeastern Japan. People heard that toxic rain would fall because of an explosion at an oil company’s facilities, and that it was not possible for aid agencies to air drop supplies within the country. They were false rumors, every single one of them. It’s a fundamental truth that rumors and misinformation accompany emergency situations. That earthquake in India? It occurred in 1934, long before the Internet and social media. The earthquake in Japan came in 2011. Both quakes resulted in rumors because uncertainty and anxiety - two core elements of crises and emergency situations - cause people invent and repeat questionable information. “In short, rumors arise and spread when people are uncertain and anxious about a topic of personal relevance and when the rumor seems credible given the sensibilities of the people involved in the spread,” write the authors of “Rumor Mills: The Social Impact of Rumor and Legend.” An article in Psychology Today10 put it another way: “Fear breeds rumor. The more collective anxiety a group has, the more inclined it will be to start up the rumor mill.” In today’s networked world, people also intentionally spread fake information and rumors as a joke, to drive “likes” and followers, or simply to cause panic. As a result, the work of verification is perhaps most difficult in the very situations when providing accurate information is of utmost importance. In a disaster, whether its cause is natural or human, the risks of inaccuracy are amplified. It can literally be a matter of life and death. 8