Posts misrepresent Kazakhstan rocket video after Turkey earthquake
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on February 10, 2023 at 23:41
- 3 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"Before Turkey Earthquake," says text over the video, which originated on TikTok before spreading across Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.
The footage shows a bright object flying through the sky, leaving a jellyfish-like pattern in its wake as onlookers cheer the sight.
The same clip also appeared in posts from countries such as Canada, as well as languages including Spanish and Portuguese. Some social media users speculated that the footage showed an effort to provoke a natural disaster.
The posts spread in the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, wiping out buildings and killing more than 20,000 people as of February 9.
But the video is not recent -- nor was it filmed in Turkey.
Video predates earthquake
Reverse image searches conducted using keyframes from the video reveal the same footage appeared on TikTok in January 2023, Twitter in October 2022 and the messaging app Telegram on September 25, 2022.
The tweet says the video shows Baikonur Cosmodrome, a spaceport in Kazakhstan used by Russia. The Telegram post suggests it was taken in Balkhash, Kazakhstan -- a few hundred miles east of Baikonur Cosmodrome.
AFP was unable to independently verify the origin of the video. But press releases from NASA and reporting from Kazinform, a Kazakhstan news agency, indicate a Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft left Baikonur Cosmodrome for the International Space Station on September 21, 2022. The rocket took off at 1454 GMT, carrying one NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts.
The Soyuz MS-22 crew ship lifted off at 9:54am ET today carrying a NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts to join the crew on the space station for a six-month mission. Docking coverage begins on NASA TV at 12:15pm ET. More.. https://t.co/v2ZhAMOx9Opic.twitter.com/yZwMrqKPEo
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) September 21, 2022
The Kazinform report and an article from another Kazakhstan news agency feature recordings and photographs of the rocket that depict a jellyfish-like trail similar to the one shown in the video shared online.
Filmed in Kazakhstan
By searching for Balkhash on Google Maps Street View, AFP found images of the city that show buildings, streetlights, railings and other structures resembling those in the clip circulating on social media.
The photos suggest the footage was taken from the street Ulitsa Abaya, near the Magauia Khamzin Palace of Culture of Metallurgists.
AFP has debunked other misrepresented visuals shared after the earthquake in Turkey here, here and here.
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