Photo of game controller from Titanic-bound submersible is altered

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 26, 2023 at 21:41
2 min read
By Natalie WADE, AFP USA

Social media posts claim the game controller used to pilot the OceanGate Titan submersible survived the vessel's implosion. This is false; the image shared as proof is altered, and the US Coast Guard says it has not released photos of the debris.

"The cheapest part survived," says a June 23, 2023 tweet sharing a picture of a video game controller on the ocean floor.

"Is this real?" one user replied.

Screenshot of a tweet taken June 26, 2023

The claim spread elsewhere on Twitter, TikTok and Facebook -- including in Spanish.

The Titan went missing June 18 during an expedition to the Titanic shipwreck. All five people aboard are presumed dead after their vessel suffered what the Coast Guard said June 22 was a "catastrophic implosion," ending the multinational search for the missing sub.

Officials say debris found on the seafloor near the Titanic is consistent with an implosion of the vessel's pressure chamber -- but the photo shared online does not show the wreckage.

"The Unified Command has not released any photos or videos of the debris," the US Coast Guard's First District previously told AFP in a June 23 email. "Unless released from our official press releases or our social media, these photos are unconfirmed."

One Twitter user replied to the June 23 tweet with the same image of the ocean floor without a controller, suggesting the picture was altered.

AFP used a reverse image search and found the original photo in a 2020 BBC article about deep-sea mining.

"These deliberate marks in the seabed were 26 years old in this photo taken in 2015," says the caption, which attributes the picture to a German research institute.

Screenshot of a BBC article taken June 26, 2023, with elements highlighted by AFP

Screenshot of a tweet taken June 26, 2023, with elements highlighted by AFP

Intrigue about the Titan submersible's disappearance and its occupants has inspired a slew of online misinformation, including conspiracy theories about the Titanic disaster itself.

AFP has debunked other manipulated media related to the lost vessel here and here.

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