This video does not show damage from January earthquake in Taiwan | Fact check
The claim: Video shows effects of January 2025 earthquake in Taiwan
A Jan. 25 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows an array of disaster footage that includes high-rise buildings leaning or collapsing, plane wreckage and dark clouds of smoke.
“Taiwan earthquake today,” text on the video reads.
The video was shared more than 30,000 times in a week.
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Our rating: False
Each of the clips in the video predates the two earthquakes that struck Taiwan the day the post was shared.
Footage predates Taiwan earthquake by days, months, years
A series of earthquakes rattled Taiwan in late January, with the most severe being a magnitude 6.0 quake that shook the southern part of the country on Jan. 20, leaving 27 people with minor injuries. The Facebook post was shared five days later, on the same day two aftershocks of that earthquake – one a magnitude 5.2, the other a magnitude 5.1 – were reported near Yujing.
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The video shared on Facebook, however, does not show any damage caused by either of those aftershocks. Each of the clips in the montage circulated days, months or years before the date of the post.
- The shot of a tilted building at the start of the clip previously was shared on Instagram on April 4, 2024.
- Footage of multiple high-rises collapsing was included in a Sept. 2, 2024, article published by The Irish Sun.
- The shot of a single high-rise collapsing matches a video posted to the Chinese social media website Meipian in 2020.
- Footage of a large dark gray smoke cloud was shared to TikTok on Jan. 17.
- A shot that scrolls past what appears to be a crashed plane along with other damaged property was shared to TikTok in April 2023. Its caption indicates it shows the crash set from Universal Studios’ 2005 film “War of the Worlds," which remains intact and open to the public as a tourist attraction.
- Footage of a towering plume of smoke near a brick building followed by a panning view past damaged houses was posted to YouTube in April 2024.
Paste BN previously debunked false claims that videos show damage caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Paste BN reached out to the Facebook user who shared the video but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources
- Asia One, April 2, 2024, Instagram post
- The Irish Sun, Sept. 2, 2024, LIKE DOMINOES Watch moment 15 abandoned high rises are DEMOLISHED in just seconds after Chinese builders ‘ran out of money’
- @Meiyou46597917, Nov. 13, 2020, Meipian post
- @disasterstorms, Jan. 17, TikTok post
- @Take Care, April 30, 2024, Tornado in USA 2024 | storm in USA | America main hava ka bagola
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