Photo of house on steep hill passed off as 'leaning' building

A picture of a house on a steep slope photographed as if it were tilted has been repeatedly shared in Indonesian-language Facebook posts with a false claim the structure was genuinely "leaning". Comments also showed many users were misled by the false posts.  

"An amazing leaning building," read the Indonesian-language post shared on Facebook on July 5 which included the picture. 

The post, which was shared by an account with more than 470,000 followers, showed a picture of a blue residential house that appeared to tilt. 

Image
Screenshot of the misleading post taken on July 11, 2024

The image was also shared with a similar claim elsewhere on Facebook here, here and here.

Comments indicated people were misled and thought the house was genuinely tilted.

"I'm curious about the inside -- it's probably also slanted," one wrote.

"I'm feeling dizzy while looking at it," said another.

However, the picture did not show a leaning house.

Reverse image searches on Google found the image was shared on Instagram by a user with the handle "lumadeline" on May 20, 2018 (archived links here and here). 

The user's bio stated that she is a photographer "sharing real luxury travel experiences around the world".

"We took a wrong turn when we were driving to Lombard Street (the famous winding street in SF), but then we found this!" read part of the caption to the post geotagged in San Francisco in the US state of California.

The photographer has also published similar works creating an illusion of a tilted house in the nearby areas (archived link). 

Using Google Maps street imagery, AFP was able to confirm the house was located on a steep slope in San Francisco's Taylor Street, and that it was not genuinely tilted (archived link). 

Below is a comparison of the circulating picture (left) and the house seen on Google Maps' street view (right):

Image
Screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post (left) and the Google Street View (right)

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

Contact us