A Filipino Facebook (FB) user posted clips of flood-submerged areas in Kazakhstan, falsely claiming they were scenes from a widespread flooding incident in China last month.
Uploaded on June 29, the 20-second video showed aerial footage of houses and streets under flood water, and an inset clip of the Filipino publisher reacting to the disaster. The post was captioned:
“Flooding in China…Ang magandang lugar ng china ito na ngayon ang situation sa lugar sa kanila (The beautiful place of China. This is the situation now in their place). #China #flooding2024.”
Not true. The videos were taken in Kazakhstan in April, when the country faced intense flooding due to melting snow and heavy rainfall.
Through reverse image search, VERA Files Fact Check found that a Kokshetau-based videographer, Serikbay Janybekov, uploaded the original video on Instagram on April 16 with a Kazakh caption that translates to “Petropavlovsk. Podgora district. Flood 2024!”
Longer and uncropped versions of the clips were also posted on Janybekov’s YouTube channel.
The misleading video circulated as torrential rain flooded southern China’s provinces starting June 9.
VERA Files Fact Check also debunked old photos falsely claiming to show the disaster in China last month.
The FB user’s false post garnered 25,800 reactions, 2,500 comments, 3,700 shares and 2,700,000 views. He describes his account as publishing mixed content “for entertainment” purposes.
