Video game simulation misrepresented as footage of Venezuela earthquake
- Published on July 2, 2026 at 08:46
- 2 min read
- By Sebastian LOZADA, AFP Colombia
- Translation and adaptation Vishesh SINGH, AFP India
Tens of thousands of buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026, but video circulating on social media that purportedly shows two high-rise blocks crashing to the ground was not filmed during the quakes. The video previously circulated in October 2023 on YouTube, where it was labelled as video game footage.
"Seconds of shaking, widespread devastation. Buildings vanish in seconds as powerful twin quakes hit Venezuela," says text superimposed on a Facebook video shared on June 26, 2026.
The video appears to show the ground shaking beneath two high-rise buildings before they topple into one another and crash to the ground.
Its caption repeats the footage is from Venezuela, filmed as powerful earthquakes struck the region.
The video also circulated in similar YouTube, Instagram and X posts in multiple languages following the devastating 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela less than a minute apart on June 24 (archived link).
The quakes killed almost 2,300 people and have left thousands more unaccounted for.
More than 58,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed by the powerful twin earthquakes, according to a preliminary assessment of satellite data published by US space agency NASA (archived link).
While there are clips showing buildings collapsing during the quakes, the circulating video is not genuine footage from the disaster (archived link).
Video game footage
A closer analysis of the circulating video contains elements that indicate it was not filmed during the Venezuela quakes.
There are no people in the video, one of the building's flats is revealed to be completely empty, and the police car in the foreground does not correspond to law enforcement vehicles in the country, as pictured in photos distributed by AFP.
A subsequent reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same clip posted on YouTube on October 2, 2023 (archived link).
The video is titled, "The two towers collapse! (Earthquake simulation in Teardown)".
Teardown is a game where players have the freedom to destroy a simulated environment using vehicles and explosions (archived link).
The YouTube channel has also shared several other videos tagged as being created with the game that show the same buildings collapsing or exploding (archived here, here and here).
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation that surfaced following the earthquakes that rocked Venezuela.
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