A Filipino Facebook user posted a video showing a supposed missile shot that collapsed a water dam in Nepal, claiming this caused the massive and deadly flash flood in Nepal and Tibet on Aug. 26. This is fake and was generated by artificial intelligence.
Uploaded on Aug. 27, the clip bore superimposed Persian text along with “Nepal 😢😢,” which appeared to be overlaid by the Filipino netizen.
It was captioned:
“Grabe😱ito Pala ang totoong nangyare (sic) bumigay ang dam pray for NIPAL (sic) (Oh my God, so this is what really happened. The dam collapsed. Pray for Nepal).”
Contrary to what the bogus video claimed, the collapse of glacial rock and ice in the Himalayas, followed by debris flow or fast-moving landslides, may have triggered the catastrophic disaster that swept villages and infrastructure along the Nepal-Tibet border, according to the United States Geological Survey.
VERA Files reached out to the Deepfakes Analysis Unit of the India-based Trusted Information Alliance to check if AI was used to create the clip.
The DAU’s keyframe and video analyses using five detection tools — ImageWhisperer, SightEngine, WasItAI, AIorNot, and Hive Moderation — found the video to be AI-generated.
Aside from the “abysmal video quality [that] we have seen in many [generative AI] videos that circulate with purported claims of showing some real-life occurrence,” the DAU’s manual analysis further revealed certain details that “contribute to the general suspicious nature of this clip.”
VERA Files also traced other copies of the video that circulated as early as May. These were accompanied by captions in various languages, including the Aug. 8 clip with Persian text reposted by the Filipino FB user.
1 Filipino missing, Nepal records show
The manufactured footage surfaced on the local online space a day following the devastating flash floods in Nepal and China’s Tibet, claiming over 300 lives and leaving more than 1,000 missing.
As of 2:45 p.m., Aug. 27 Philippine time, a Filipino is among the 664 unidentified missing travelers in the aftermath of flooding in the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers in Nepal, based on a list released by the country’s tourism board.
For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Embassy of the Philippines in New Delhi, which is mandated to represent the state in Nepal, and the Honorary Consulate General of the Philippines in Kathmandu are verifying the information about the missing Filipino.
According to the DFA, approximately 128 Filipinos reside in Nepal, most of whom are women married to Nepali nationals.
The made-up video published by FB user Samuel Nato has so far received 18,700 reactions; 583 comments; 2,000 shares and 1.8 million views.
