n n n ‘. concat(e. i18n. t(“search. voice. recognition_retry”),’n
Users reposted the same clip on TikTok and added it in Spanish. It has also spread in languages on other platforms such as X, where misinformation has accelerated since billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover in 2022.
“A tsunami hits Taiwan after a magnitude 7. 5 earthquake devastated parts of the country,” reads a now-deleted post from the site.
At least nine other people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in the aftermath of the quake, the most powerful to hit Taiwan in decades.
The quake triggered tsunami warnings that extended to Japan and the Philippines but were temporarily lifted and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the risk had “largely passed. “
The video posted on TikTok shows the aftermath of the earthquake in Taiwan – it predates the crisis by more than 10 years.
Reverse searches for symbols and keywords revealed the same symbols rotated horizontally and shared online as early as March 2011, when a devastating tsunami hit Japan (archived here).
The March 11, 2011, tsunami was triggered by a major earthquake off the coast, which produced waves that tossed ships inland, sent water over levees and caused the release of radioactive contaminants from a nuclear plant. More than 18,500 people were killed or missing.
The YouTube user who shared the first edit of the footage that AFP has just located said in a Japanese-language caption that he captured it from a parking lot in the most sensitive part of an Aeon store in the city of Tagajo, Japan. He took them there as the waves approached.
AFP independently verified the location by comparing the parking lots, ramp and satellite poles in the photographs with those captured on Google Earth and Google Maps Street View imagery from August 2011 (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the earthquake in Taiwan and publishes distorted photos of the tsunami in Japan here and here.