A video of buildings toppling is shared on social media with the claim it depicts the earthquake that shook Taiwan on April 3, 2024. This is false; the clip shows a controlled demolition of high-rises in China from 2021.
“Nine feared d£@d, hundreds inj¥red as 7.2 earthquake hits Taiwan,” says an April 3, 2024 X post.
It includes a since-deleted TikTok clip of several buildings collapsing simultaneously.
Similar posts spread across social media on other platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, including posts in Thai.
At least 10 people were killed and more than 1,100 injured in the magnitude-7.4 quake, the strongest to hit Taiwan in decades, according to the national disaster agency. Strict building regulations and widespread public disaster awareness appear to have staved off a major catastrophe on the island.
The Uranus building, located in Hualien, the city nearest the quake’s epicenter, is among buildings that will face demolition because it is precariously tilting.
But the social media video does not show scenes from Taiwan. Instead, it captures the demolition of a group of buildings in China.
AFP conducted a reverse image search of keyframes from the footage and found a similar video shared online, dating back to 2021 (archived here). Although captured from a different angle, both clips feature identical buildings, a rooftop garden and tennis court.
These elements can be seen highlighted below:
The search also uncovered other clips capturing the demolition, including a video published by USA Today which shows the same buildings collapsing from a third angle (archived here).
“The 15 buildings that stood next to each other for seven years were demolished in China. They were abandoned with rain damage,” USA Today’s caption says.
This video appears to show the same building structures visible in the background of the clip spread online, at different angles.
According to a Vice report, the high-rises were demolished on August 27, 2021, in Kunming, southern China (archived here).
And Chinese state media Global Times said the 15 high-rise buildings, which were originally constructed for residential purposes, were unfinished (archived link).
AFP previously debunked posts falsely tying this video to a 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria and a 2024 quake in Japan. Other clips of the event were also erroneously shared alongside the claim it showed footage of Israel bombing Gaza, according to BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh.
More of AFP’s reporting on misinformation about the Taiwan quake can be found here.
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