AI-generated clip of 'Bolivian parliament building collapse' misleads online
- Published on July 10, 2025 at 08:37
- 3 min read
- By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines
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The video of an entire wall apparently collapsing onto people seated on stage at its base was shared on Facebook on July 3.
"Oh no Earthquake in Assamblea Den Balovia (sic)," says the video's Tagalog and English caption, referring to Bolivia's legislative body, the "Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional" (archived link).
The same video was shared elsewhere in Burmese, Korean, Indonesian and Hindi posts, racking up over two million views.
Bolivian authorities recorded at least 20 earthquakes in the country's south in the week leading up to July 3, when a 5.4-magnitude tremor hit in the early morning but caused no structural damage, local media outlets reported (archived links here and here).
The circulating video, however, misled social media users.
"Oh my god, I hope nobody got hurt," one said.
"Pity to those who got crushed," another wrote.
Visual inconsistencies in the 10-second clip reveal it was AI-generated.
The people seated on the stage in front of the collapsing wall fall unnaturally at the same angle as the structure. Despite its height, the wall only hits half the chamber, while the remaining rows remain completely undamaged.
People also appear out of thin air after the wall's collapse, with some blurring into inhuman shapes.
Despite the rapid progress of artificial intelligence technology, these inconsistencies remain the best way to identify AI-generated content.
Separately, Google reverse image searches found the video was labelled as AI-generated when it was shared on TikTok on July 2, 2025 (archived link).
The same user repeatedly uploaded other similar AI-generated videos (archived links here and here).
Further reverse image searches found the AI-footage appears to be based on a photo of the parliament hall uploaded to the official website of the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies on November 22, 2024 (archived link).
AFP debunks of AI-generated visuals, including those of various disasters, can be found here.
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