These are not photos of damage from a tornado in Canada
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 25, 2018 at 00:28
- Updated on September 25, 2018 at 00:28
- 2 min read
- By Marisha GOLDHAMER
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
“Bird'seye view of Gatineau tornado damage” posted one Facebook user shortly after a storm whose winds reached 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour) hit Gatineau, in Quebec province.
Another post with the same photo was shared more than 3,800 times since September 22. According to the edit history of the post, Mick Lafreniere originally shared the photo at 7:55 am that morning. Nearly five hours later, he updated the post to reflect that the photo is not of Gatineau. It now reads, “Fake.news ces pas a Gatineau.”
The same photo was also shared on Twitter.
A Google image search showed that the dramatic aerial photo was actually taken by Associated Press photographer Charlie Riedel on May 24, 2011 after a tornado in the US state of Missouri. According to the AP caption, it shows a destroyed apartment complex in Joplin, Missouri.
A second Facebook post from the page “Spotted: Saint-Sauveur” says it shows before and after photos of the damage from the tornado. However, in the comments of the post, the page admits that the photos are not from the storm, but screenshots from the video game Fallout 4.
A Google image search also confirmed that the photos are from the game.
The top photo features in a 2015 US Gamer article about the prologue to the role-playing video game, while the lower photo can be clearly seen on the Fallout Wiki, a website dedicated to the post-apocalyptic title by Bethesda Softworks.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
