Online rumors partially to blame for drop in water pressure in Mississippi capital, manager says

Law enforcement agencies are investigating whether social media rumors about a potential water outage prompted people to quickly fill bathtubs with tap water in Mississippi’s capital during a cold snap

JACKSON, Miss. -- Law enforcement agencies are investigating whether social media rumors about a potential water outage prompted people to quickly fill bathtubs with tap water in Mississippi's capital during a cold snap and cause a drop in pressure that temporarily made faucets run dry for thousands of customers of the city’s long-troubled system.

Taps ran dry Wednesday and Thursday for almost a quarter of Jackson’s 52,000 water customers as icy conditions strained local infrastructure. Officials for JXN Water, the private corporation that has been under a federal order to run Jackson’s system since late 2022, said a “deliberate misinformation campaign” was partially to blame. People responded to social media posts by filling bathtubs with water in a short period, causing demand to spike beyond what the water system could support, water manager Ted Henifin said.

JXN Water said in a statement Friday that U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate authorized the release of information about the investigation and advised the corporation on what to communicate to the public.

The organization did not specify which law enforcement agencies are involved or what charges might be brought if people are found to have spread false information on social media.

JXN Water identified one specific social media post, but Palacios said the organization had not traced its origin.