Viral video of 'Indonesia volcano eruption' is AI-generated
A video is being shared on the social media platform Facebook following a volcano eruption in Indonesia, with ash rising to a height of 50,000 feet. However, Dismislab’s fact-check found that the video is not footage of the actual eruption that occurred on September 5; it was created using artificial intelligence (AI).
On September 7, a video was posted from the Facebook page of the online news outlet Jagoron. The 16-second video shows an orange-yellow explosion of lava, resembling fireworks, shooting into the sky from a mountain peak, with houses and cars lined up along a road below and people running in the street. A voiceover can be heard in the background saying, “Oh my God! It’s erupting,” along with the sound of people screaming. The post’s caption read, “Indonesia’s volcano erupts again; ash rises to a height of 50,000 feet.”
As of the publication of this report, the video had been viewed more than 230,000 times, the post had received more than 2,300 reactions, and it had been shared more than 900 times.
The video spread with the same claim from multiple other Facebook pages as well (1, 2). Indian news outlets Anandabazar Patrika and Kolkata News published reports using the same video; Kolkata News published a zoomed-in portion of the video, claiming it showed ash and burning lava bursting into the sky from the Anak Krakatoa volcano. Anandabazar stated that it “could not verify the authenticity” of the video. In addition, Indian news outlet Times of India also used footage from this circulating video in one of its reports.
To verify the claim, a reverse image search on keyframes of the video found the exact video on an account named Mexx on social media platform X. The caption of that post read, “Anak Krakatau erupted yesterday….” An examination found that most videos published on this account (1, 2, 3) were created using artificial intelligence.
In further verification, an examination using the AI content detection tool Hive Moderation found a 99.9 percent probability that the video was created using AI. However, Dismislab could not verify exactly which software or model was used to create the video, or whether it was made by altering real footage.
The “Paris Charter on AI and Journalism,” published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2023, offers certain recommendations on the use of artificial intelligence in journalism. It states that it is the duty of the media to help viewers and readers distinguish between real content and content created using artificial intelligence.
It is worth noting that a major eruption did in fact occur at Indonesia’s Anak Krakatoa volcano on September 5 this year, reported to be the most intense since the collapse of its earlier peak in 2018. According to the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC), a layer of ash reached a height of 50,000 feet and spread across Banten, Lampung, and Bengkulu provinces, the Sunda Strait, and parts of the Indian Ocean west of Sumatra.
