Old Japan video misrepresented as Morocco earthquake
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 15, 2023 at 23:10
- 2 min read
- By AFP USA
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"An #earthquake hit Morocco in the region of Marrakech at the magnitude of 6.8 on Richter. #earthquake #Terremoto #Temblor #Morocco #Marruecos #USAGER," says a September 9, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The post includes a clip of someone filming inside a house during what appears to be an earthquake.
Other versions of the footage circulated on YouTube after a powerful earthquake struck 45 miles southwest of tourist hub Marrakesh on September 8, wiping out entire villages in the hills of the Atlas mountains. Nearly 3,000 people have been killed.
But the video shared on social media is old and unrelated to the disaster.
A reverse image search surfaced a January 2022 Facebook post crediting the video to "gingatandx." AFP matched the username to an X account that posted the video with a Japanese caption on January 21 of that year (archived here).
地震怖かったーーー
— ぎんがりあん★げそすたー (@gingatandx) January 21, 2022
これで震度5強ですか。。。
キッチンにあったほんだしの瓶も驚いて転がってきた笑笑#地震pic.twitter.com/YgHG9kphWY
The post coincides with the date of an earthquake in southwest Japan that caused minor injuries, but no major damage.
The X account's bio says it is based in the Oita prefecture. The account also links to a YouTube channel in which the same home interior appears in another video posted a year before the earthquake clip.
AFP has debunked other claims about the Morocco earthquake here.
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