Old video of Florida building collapse falsely linked to Turkey earthquake

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 8, 2023 at 06:35
2 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

A video showing a building collapsing has been viewed thousands of times in social media posts that falsely claim it shows footage of an earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023. The earthquake has killed at least 7,800 people and several thousand buildings have been flattened. But the clip is in fact surveillance video footage of an apartment block collapse that killed 98 people in the US state of Florida on June 24, 2021.

"A strong earthquake has caused devastation in Turkey, more than 50 people have died and 500+ are injured. May Allah protect the people of Turkey," reads the Hindi-language caption of a video shared on Facebook here on February 6, 2023.

The 18-second video appears to show a multi-storey building collapsing and throwing up plumes of dust.

English-language text on the video reads, "Powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake Hits in Southern Turkey".

A screenshot of the false post, captured on February 7, 2023

At least 7,800 people have died in Turkey and Syria after a series of strong tremors near their shared border -- the largest of which measured at a massive 7.8-magnitude.

Similar videos were viewed tens of thousands of times in tweets by users based in Pakistan and Bangladesh that linked the footage to the earthquake.

The footage was also used in videos posted elsewhere on Facebook in Hindi here, in the regional Indian language Odia here and in English here.

The claim, however, is false; the video in fact shows a building collapse in Florida.

Old US video

A keyword search on Google found the footage was used in a news report by the Florida-based television station WPLG on June 24, 2021.

The report was uploaded to YouTube with the title, "Surveillance video captures eerie scene as part of Surfside condo building collapses".

Footage of the building collapsing begins at the 19-second mark.

The surveillance video footage was also used in a report by ABC News that was uploaded to YouTube on the following day.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used in the false post (left) and the video uploaded by ABC News (right):

Screenshot comparison of the clip in the false post (left) and the video uploaded by ABC News (right)

The collapse was reported by other news outlets here, here and here.

A total of 98 people died in the collapse of the 12-storey Champlain Towers South building near Miami.

A US court approved a one billion dollar payout for victims of the disaster in June 2022, according to CNN.

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