Old videos used in coverage of Russia earthquake
A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 struck near the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in eastern Russia on 29 July. Following the incident, at least two old videos were seen circulating in several Bangladeshi media outlets, which had no connection to the earthquake in Russia.
Old Myanmar earthquake footage shared as Russian incident
A video shared on the Facebook pages of some media outlets, claiming to show the Russian earthquake. The video shows shelves collapsing inside a shop. This video was included in reports by Jugantor, Ekhon TV, Dainik Azadi, Probashi Journal, and Deepto TV. Each of these reports referenced the Russian earthquake in the captions.
Verification by Dismislab found that the video was actually from a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar in March this year. The date “2025-03-28” is also visible in the top-right corner of the video. A video (archive) published on Chinese news portal News QQ on 30 March describes the footage as scenes from the Myanmar earthquake.
The text within the video states: “On the afternoon of March 28th, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Fujian. An online video shows a supermarket in chaos within seconds of the quake. Goods collapsed, the building shook, and the store was in ruins. A lucky woman managed to duck under a table and avoid being hit by the shelves.”
Old ‘Greenland’ video resurfaces in Russian context
Another video was found in a report by Ekattor TV, which also circulated on social media. At 1 minute 37 seconds into Ekattor TV’s report (archive), two individuals are seen trying to escape from a large wave or possible tsunami at the seashore. The same video appeared in several posts on 30 July with captions claiming: “A massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula has triggered a 4-meter-high tsunami wave.” (1, 2, 3)
Dismislab’s verification traced the video to a post on image and video-sharing site Imgur dated 18 April 2021, titled “Greenland fishermen escaping remnants of a mega-tsunami.” Using the keywords “Greenland fishermen” and “tsunami,” a YouTube video from 9 April 2021 was found showing the same scene. The video was uploaded by Lisette Studios, with a description saying it was footage of a tsunami in Greenland on 17 June 2017. Both the BBC and The Guardian had published news reports on the Greenland tsunami in June 2017.
Publishing inaccurate images or videos during natural disasters is not a new occurrence in the media. In February this year, old photos were circulated as scenes from wildfires in the United States. In September 2024, during the floods in northern Bangladesh, media reports used a photo from 2021 showing rising water along the banks of the Padma River in Munshiganj.
