As deadly floods hit the Nepal-China border, social media is being inundated with fake and misleading footage. In Truth or Fake, Vedika Bahl goes through viral videos falsely linked to the disaster, including AI-generated content and old recycled footage from India, Chile and Alaska. Some posts have racked up millions of views online, exploiting the tragedy to drive engagement for easy clicks or further perpetuate conspiracy theories.
One widely shared video gained over 7 million views, appearing to show a torrent of floodwater bursting its banks, sweeping away vehicles and pedestrians. Users shared it as evidence of the devastation in Nepal, except that the video is AI-generated. It contains a SynthID digital watermark, indicating that it was created using Google’s AI tools.
