Was that a photo of Irene approaching North Carolina? New York? No, that was actually from a storm from somewhere in Pensacola, Fla. from a couple of weeks ago.
But that didn’t stop it from being viewed some 270,000 odd times. Then there was another supposed image of the East River flooding. Pundits suspect it may have actually been taken in North Carolina, or may be from a previous storm that hit the Big Apple.
(PHOTOS: U.S. East Coast Battens Down as Hurricane Irene Approaches)
A photo of a flooded Time Square subway station was also initially believed to be real, but had probably come from another storm quite a while back according to fellow Twitizens. What you see may not always be what you get—that is unless it happens to come from a politician.
[via New York Times]
Erica Ho is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @ericamho and Google+. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.