A video of a building supposedly destroyed by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake that recently jolted Morocco is circulating among Filipino netizens. The video is false. The clip was taken in the North African country in 2020.
On Sept. 9, a Facebook (FB) user posted a 24-second video bearing four clips supposedly showing the quake’s damage in Morocco. It was captioned:
“PRAY FOR MOROCCO. A strong #earthquake hits Morocco today with 6.8 magnitude leaving several casualties and damages. #prayformorocco #prayer.”
The compilation video started with a six-second clip of a three-story building falling to the ground. Several Filipino netizens shared and commented on the post. The same clip was uploaded on Twitter and TikTok and appeared in other compilation videos.
The building collapse happened in Casablanca, Morocco in 2020, not this year.
Reverse image search of the clip’s screenshots led to the YouTube channel Sarouna lol, which uploaded a longer copy on Aug. 7, 2020. Its Arabic caption translates to “A house collapsed in Sbata, Derb Moulay Bouchaib, alley 4, Casablanca.”
A Twitter user also uploaded a copy a day earlier with a caption stating the same location.
News reports confirmed that such an incident happened in Sbata, Casablanca on Aug. 6, 2020. One of the reports attributed the collapse to the house having deep cracks from within.
The other three clips in the circulating compilation video are actual scenes from the deadly Sept. 8 Morocco quake which has killed over 2,900 people.
According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, none was hurt or injured among the approximately 4,600 Filipinos in Morocco.
VERA Files Fact Check has also debunked other clips of earthquakes falsely passed off as recent. (Read FALSE TikTok video on California quake reshared on FB)
The post by the FB page Chasm InTime (created on April 24) has 8,100 views and was shared 158 times as of writing. The clip with the wrong context uploaded by TikTok user currybeatz0 also garnered 1,193 likes, 73 comments, 1,100 shares and 87,600 views.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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