This video of a 'China-shaped cloud' has circulated online since at least 2019

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 4, 2021 at 05:30
Updated on July 12, 2021 at 05:53
1 min read
By AFP Hong Kong

A video of a China-shaped cloud has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple posts on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook alongside a claim it was captured in the Chinese city of Ningbo on May 25, 2021. The claim is false: the video has circulated online since at least 2019.

“At 3:27 pm on May 25, 2021, in Ningbo city, Zhejiang province, a cloud shaped like a map of China appeared in the sky,” reads this tweet written in simplified Chinese.

The video was posted on May 27, 2021. It has been viewed more than 25,000 times.

Screenshot taken on June 3, 2021 of the misleading Twitter post

The video was shared alongside a similar claim here, here and here on Twitter; here and here on YouTube; and here, here and here on Facebook.

The claim is false: the video has circulated online since at least June 2019.

The earliest version of the footage AFP found was posted on June 28, 2019. It was published here on Chinese video-sharing app Douyin.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the Twitter video from May 2021 (L) and the Douyin video from June 2019 (R):

Screenshot comparisons between the Twitter video from May 2021 (L) and the Douyin video from June 2019 (R)

The video was also shared in 2019 by other online users, including here, here and here.

AFP could not confirm the exact location where the video was filmed.

The same misleading posts were also debunked by Chinese television network Sichuan Radio and Television here.

UPDATE 12/7/21: Fixed typo in headline

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