How the Disinformation Supply Chain Created a Deceptive Narrative about the Texas Blackout

Severe weather hobbled the electrical grid in Texas last week, but it did not hobble the United States’ disinformation supply chain.

In just a few days, deceptive outlets created a misleading narrative blaming the power outages on wind-turbine failures. Then this narrative went viral.  As of 12 p.m. EST on February 19, content propagating it had garnered 1.8 million views on YouTube and more than 1 million interactions (likes, comments, and shares) on Facebook.

Some wind turbines went offline in Texas this week, but two-thirds of the state’s shortfall in power generation came from failures at gas and coal power plants. GMF’s Digital New Deal researchers investigated where the false narrative came from, how manipulative outlets masquerading as news sites created and blew it up, and how it spread quickly across social media.

How did a thread of truth get spun into a web of falsehoods? It starts with a photo—not from 2021, and not from the United States.

Saturday, February 13

On Saturday, February 13, an image of a helicopter de-icing wind turbines started to circulate on Twitter alongside critiques of renewable energy. But the image was not of a wind turbine in Texas. It was taken in Sweden. In 2014.

Sunday, February 14

On Sunday, the Austin American-Stateman, a reputable local newspaper, published an article headlined “Frozen wind turbines hamper Texas power output, state’s electric grid operator says.” The headline was accurate: Wind turbines were the first energy sources to fail, and the body of the article made clear that wind only accounts for around 25 percent of the state’s power generation. However, the next day, the American-Statesman’s story would be repackaged by less reputable outlets to feed a misleading narrative.

Monday, February 15

Early on Monday morning, several natural gas and coal power plants began to fail. Because these sources are responsible for a majority of the energy generation in Texas, the cascading shutdowns caused widespread power outages.

The same morning, Breitbart published an article that misleadingly blamed wind power for the outages, selectively pulling quotes from the American-Statesman story. According to NewsGuard, a nonpartisan service that rates news and information websites for their reliability, Breitbart is a deceptive outlet because it repeatedly fails to gather and present information responsibly.

Breitbart’s article did not mention shortfalls in gas- and coal-powered electricity generation, even though Texas’s grid operator had released a statement overnight clarifying that “Extreme weather conditions caused many generating units – across fuel types – to trip offline.”

11 a.m. EST Monday, February 15

Later Monday morning, the Daily Wire, another deceptive outlet, published an article on the topic, with the headline “Nearly Half Of Texas’ Wind Turbines Frozen In Winter Storm, Limiting State’s Power Output.” The article featured an embedded tweet that included the 2014 image of helicopters de-icing wind turbines in Sweden. The embedded tweet received over 30,000 retweets before the Twitter account went private.

Days later, the Daily Wire updated the article to include details about the role of non-renewable energy sources in the power outages and remove the embedded tweet. But as it was published on Monday, the article ignored failures at coal and gas-powered plants, and drove the narrative that frozen wind turbines were to blame for the outages.

12 p.m. EST Monday, February 15

At 12:47 p.m. on Monday, the Facebook pages of the Daily Wire and three associated personalities—Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and Michael Knowles—simultaneously posted the Daily Wire’s story to Facebook, with Shapiro and Walsh referencing the 2014 image.

Three hours later, the piece had garnered over 100,000 Facebook interactions. Other outlets piled onto the narrative, blaming the power outages on wind-turbine failures.

9 p.m. EST Monday, February 15

That evening, Tucker Carlson told his Fox News viewers that “the windmills froze, so the power grid failed…[g]reen energy inevitably means blackouts.” The foxnews.com link to his monologue received over 283,000 interactions on Facebook, while the YouTube video had received over 600,000 views as of 12 p.m. EST on February 19.

Tuesday, February 16

The following day, the narrative continued to spread through a variety of sources and outlets. In the evening, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, came on Fox News and repeated the false narrative himself.

“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Abbott said to Fox News host Sean Hannity. “Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis [...] It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.”

Abbott walked back his comments the next day.

But the false narrative created by deceptive outlets, spread on social media, and parroted by politicians continued to spread, reaching millions of people.

What This Narrative Illustrates about the U.S. Disinformation Supply Chain

Sometimes disinformation is wholly fabricated, like when false claims of Antifa arson proliferated during last fall’s wildfires. In other instances, like this one, information is not fabricated but distorted. Facts are ripped from their original context and repurposed to advance a misleading narrative.

This kind of manipulative content can be even more pernicious because it maintains an element of truth. As our previous research has found, manipulative content has seen faster growth in engagement on Facebook than other types of content over the past several years.

Timeline of Narrative

All views and interaction data are as of 12 p.m. EST on February 19 unless otherwise noted.

• February 13: The image of helicopters de-icing wind turbines is posted on Twitter (link directs to an early tweet of the picture) alongside critiques of renewable energy. Over the next 48 hours, the image will go viral. The image is from Sweden in 2014.

• February 14, 4:30 p.m. EST: Article from Austin American-Statesman with the headline “Frozen wind turbines hamper Texas power output, state’s electric grid operator says.” The truthful article is distorted by deceptive outlets in the coming days to advance a misleading narrative. The article received over 67,000 Facebook interactions by 12:30 p.m. on Monday, and that number has risen to 210,000.

• February 15, 11:40 a.m. EST: Breitbart article links to the American-Statesman and suggests wind turbines are responsible for power outages that became widespread overnight. 79,000 Facebook interactions.

• February 15, 12:35 p.m. EST: Texas Scorecard article claims “Texans aren’t just feeling the consequences of frozen turbines—they’re also subsidizing them.” 73,000 Facebook interactions.

• February 15, 12:47 p.m. EST: Daily Wire article links to the American-Statesman and blames wind turbines for the Texas power outage. Includes links (now removed) to a tweet including the image of the helicopter de-icing the wind turbines. 262,000 Facebook interactions.

• February 15, 9:00 p.m. EST: Tucker Carlson claims “The windmills froze, so the power grid failed.” The foxnews.com link to his monologue has 283,000 Facebook interactions, and the YouTube video has 617,000 views.

• February 16, 10:48 a.m. EST: Western Journal article summarizes Carlson’s argument and includes links (now removed) to a tweet including the image of the helicopter de-icing the wind turbines. 266,000 Facebook interactions.

• February 16, ~11 a.m. EST: Steven Crowder, a conservative commentator, live streams on YouTube claiming that “the Texas power outages have utterly exposed the failures of green energy and the power of fossil fuels.” Video has 962,000 views.

• February 16, 5:51 p.m. EST: Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) posts a Twitter thread emphasizing that the power failure resulted from failures related to wind power: “Bottom line: renewables don’t work well in extreme weather.” The first tweet of the thread has 12,200 favorites and 4,500 retweets (including quote tweets). An analogous Facebook post on his congressional page garnered 17,000 likes and 11,000 shares, while the same post on his personal Facebook page garnered 53,000 likes and 51,000 shares.

• February 16, 9:00 p.m. EST: Texas Governor Greg Abbott appears on the Sean Hannity show on Fox News and claims “This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.” The YouTube video has 191,000 views. He walked back his comments the next day.