A video with over 2.1 million views is claiming that a bird caused the wildfires in California this month. This is impossible as even authorities are still investigating the cause of the disasters. More, the clip was generated through artificial intelligence (AI).
Posted on Facebook (FB) on Jan. 19 by a Filipino netizen, the 10-second video shows clips of a bird carrying a ball of fire and flaming leaves before transitioning to a clip of a burning forest.
The FB Reel carried the text:
“OMG. Isang ibon Pala Ang dahilan ng wildfire. Ang saklap. (A bird is the cause of the wildfire. This is terrible.)”
The hashtags in the post also included #wildfireinlosangeles.
The video was originally uploaded on Jan. 18 by TikTok user Mobd3 of ai, which, upon a review of the account, appears to exclusively post AI-generated media. Its caption carried the same false claim:
“The bird sets the fire to Los Angeles #california #losangeles #usa🇺🇸 #wildfire #usa_tiktok #californiafire.”
Results from the AI-detection tool Hive Moderation shows a 99% possibility that the video was created through AI, as well as a 99% probability that it was made with the AI-generator tool Flux.
According to the website of the California Fire Department, the cause of the wildfires in several parts of Los Angeles County remains under investigation.
Other fact-checking organizations have debunked similar claims about birds causing the blaze.
VERA Files has debunked other false claims about the California wildfires that circulated since they started on Jan. 7. As of Jan. 24, the wildfires that spread in the neighborhoods of Palisades, Eaton, Hughes and Sepulveda in Los Angeles have yet to be put out.
Two videos uploaded by FB users collectively garnered 7,627 reactions, 1,713 comments, 607 shares and 2,104,800 views.