Deliberate destruction? Misinformation ignites in the wake of fires in North America

On the networks, Internet users allege that the fires which destroyed cities or entire neighborhoods this summer were deliberately started by the authorities in order to make a clean slate for installing these new urban technologies.

“What were the chances of having two fires in two different places, in the same week, when these two cities launched initiatives to become smart cities?” asks a woman in a video on TikTok, referring to the fires that ravaged Lahaina in Haiwai and West Kelowna, in Western Canada.

Some of these videos studied by AFP are no longer available on TikTok, but copies are circulating on Facebook, Instagram and even X (formerly Twitter).

“There is no reason to destroy infrastructure to rebuild it in a more intelligent” and connected way, told AFP Harvey Miller, urban planner at Ohio State University.

The Canadian city of Kelowna did publish a "smart city" strategy in 2020, but there is no indication that destruction was caused for this purpose, an assertion seen millions of times on different platforms.

These connected city projects, notably promoting public transport, have a bad reputation in the United States, with a 2022 survey affirming that half of Americans would not want to live there.

Project withdrawn in Toronto

Similar theories have circulated online after other disasters in North America, including Hurricane Idalia in Florida and a train derailment that caused pollution in Ohio.

In Canada, smart city projects are often accused by some of being motivated by intentions to restrict climate-related freedoms or eliminate cash.

Rumors that sometimes translate into real life, as in Bridgewater, a small town in Eastern Canada, which after participating in a “smart city” competition was targeted by a series of false allegations.

Internet users assured in particular that the project would reduce the freedom of movement of residents, the mayor told AFP - while the project concerned the thermal renovation of buildings and the improvement of public transport - which created fears within population.

But beyond the absurd theories, these urban development projects raise legitimate debates, continues researcher Harvey Miller, particularly on the protection of privacy.

“You cannot survey a city with high-resolution cameras, in real time, without creating the possibility of identifying and tracking individuals,” he explains.

Google thus abandoned a project in Toronto, in particular because the American giant failed to respond to concerns about the protection of personal data.

Andrew Smyth, a specialist on the issue at Columbia University, says he is working on data protection technologies in the projects he works on, in New York and Florida.

“I’m not aware of any bad intentions in the smart cities movement,” he says. “There’s not really any reason why these cities would want more control – they’re looking for efficiencies.”