Venezuela earthquakes: old footage and AI fakes exploit disaster online • FRANCE 24 English

Key Concepts

• Misinformation Tactics: The use of deceptive media to farm engagement or spread fear during crises.
• Reverse Image Search: A digital forensic tool used to trace the original source and context of visual media.
• Contextual Misrepresentation: Presenting authentic footage from a different time or location as current events.
• AI-Generated Content: Synthetic media created by artificial intelligence that mimics reality but contains structural or physical anomalies.
• Engagement Farming: The practice of posting sensationalist content to exploit algorithms and gain views, likes, or shares.

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1. Misinformation Strategies in Natural Disasters

The report identifies three primary methodologies used to spread false information following the twin earthquakes in Venezuela:

• Geographic Displacement: Using footage from unrelated international disasters (e.g., Turkey, Myanmar, Thailand, Japan) and falsely labeling it as the current event in Venezuela.
• Temporal Misrepresentation: Using authentic footage from the correct location (Venezuela) but from a different time period (years prior), falsely attributing it to the current earthquake.
• AI-Generated Fabrication: Creating entirely synthetic videos that depict catastrophic events that never occurred.

2. Case Studies and Evidence

A. The "White Building" Collapse (Geographic Displacement)

• The Claim: A viral video showed a white building collapsing amidst plumes of smoke, purportedly in Venezuela.
• The Reality: A reverse image search linked the footage to a controlled demolition in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, in October 2023. The building had been damaged during the February 2023 Turkey earthquake.
• Verification: Google Street View comparisons between November 2022 and February 2025 confirmed the building's location in Turkey, proving it could not be in Venezuela.

B. The Caracas Metro Explosion (Temporal Misrepresentation)

• The Claim: Videos of passengers fleeing a Caracas metro carriage were presented as evidence of earthquake-induced chaos.
• The Reality: While the footage was indeed filmed in the Caracas Metro, it was not linked to the recent earthquakes.
• Verification: Spanish-language media reports from September 2021 confirmed the incident was caused by a system failure at the Los Dos Caminos station, not seismic activity.

C. The Swaying Towers (AI-Generated Content)

• The Claim: A video showing two high-rise towers bending like rubber before collapsing was circulated as footage of the Venezuelan disaster.
• The Reality: The video is confirmed to be AI-generated.
• Technical Indicators of AI:
  • Physical Impossibility: Skyscrapers do not bend like rubber; they possess rigid structural integrity.
  • Lack of Interaction: Objects in the scene (e.g., a car underneath) fail to react to the surrounding collapse.
  • Texture Anomalies: Debris appears uniform and small, lacking the realistic variation of concrete and metal chunks.

3. Synthesis and Conclusion

The investigation highlights a sophisticated ecosystem of misinformation that exploits the public's emotional response to natural disasters. By combining dated footage, misplaced geographic content, and AI-generated imagery, bad actors successfully "farm engagement" and spread fear. The report emphasizes that even when footage is authentic to a location, it requires rigorous verification of its timeline and context. The primary takeaway is the necessity of using forensic tools like reverse image searches and critical visual analysis—such as checking for physical inconsistencies in AI media—to combat the rapid spread of digital falsehoods.