For the people sharing these claims online, only a “weather weapon” could have been used to wreak such havoc across Spain – but they were wrong.
This was not the first time that HAARP, an atmospheric research programme first developed by the US military in 1990s, was the target of conspiracy theories.
But claims like these keep gaining traction on social media – particularly when extreme weather events, like floods or hurricanes, make the headlines.
Why is that the case? And how dangerous could such claims be?