Nepal disaster: fake and AI images flood social media as deaths mount

Nepal disaster: fake and AI images flood social media as deaths mount To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Issued on: Modified: As deadly floods hit the Nepal-China border, social media is being flooded with fake and misleading footage. In Truth or Fake, Vedika Bahl goes through viral videos falsely linked to the disaster, including AI-generated content and old recycled footage from India, Chile and Alaska. Some posts have racked up millions of views online, exploiting the tragedy to drive engagement for easy clicks or further perpetuate conspiracy theories. One widely shared video gained over 7 million views, appearing to show a torrent of floodwater bursting its banks, sweeping away vehicles and pedestrians. Users sharing it as evidence of the devastation in Nepal, except that the video is AI-generated. It contains a SynthID digital watermark indicating that it was created using Google’s AI tools. Tools developed by major technology companies, including Google and Meta, can help identify digital watermarks and signs of AI-generated imagery, providing an increasingly important tool for verifying viral content during breaking news events. Our fact-check found that several viral posts are either AI-generated, recycled from older disasters or filmed in other countries. The false content is adding to the confusion around the disaster and, in some cases, exploiting it for clicks and engagement. Another viral post shows a dramatic before-and-after photo montage, claiming to show the destruction of a town. While genuine before-and-after images of the disaster are circulating, this particular montage is fake and was also created using AI. It's not just destruction images; even a seemingly heartwarming video claiming to show an elephant rescuing a trapped man has been falsely linked to the disaster. However, there are no credible reports that such a rescue took place in Nepal. The video was already circulating weeks before the flash floods broke out, Meta’s detection tools also found signs that the video was AI-generated. Whilst AI adds a layer of complexity to disaster misinformation, it isn't the only way false information is spreading. Old footage from other disasters is also being presented as scenes from Nepal. After reports that a glacier collapse may have contributed to the deadly flash floods, videos claiming to show the collapse in Nepal’s mountains near Tibet were viewed millions of times. One of those videos was actually filmed in Chilean Patagonia years ago, another shows Alaska's Columbia Glacier and was previously posted by the pilot who recorded it. Other old disaster footage has also been falsely linked to Nepal. One video showing a flash flood sweeping through a valley was widely shared as footage from the current disaster. It was actually filmed more than a year ago in Uttarakhand, India. It is important to stress that while the images and videos examined here are fake or unrelated to Nepal, the disaster itself is very real, and genuine footage of the devastating floods is emerging from the affected areas. [Image text:] BEFORE X AFTER