By Hazel Gandhi
A video showing a mysterious lightning in the sky is being falsely shared as a clip taken moments before the earthquake in Morocco. BOOM found that the claims are false; the video is old and has been made using computer-generated imagery (CGI).
At least 2,862 people have been reported dead following a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Morocco on September 8. 2,500 people are reportedly injured following this quake that occurred in the country's High Atlas Mountains region, located towards the southwest of Marrakech.
The video of the lightning is going viral in this context. A caption on X reads, "This happened before the earthquake in Morocco."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the video had been created using CGI in 2020 and is not related to the Morocco earthquake.
We ran a reverse image search on Google using some key visuals from the video and found a Facebook post shared by a page called Spacelover.official on March 14, 2021. The post carried the same viral video and was captioned, "They're here... 👽 Rate this artwork 1-10 Artist: @jayhideaway 💫"
Click here to view.
The post credited @jayhideaway for the video. We searched for this profile on different social media websites and found that the TikTok profile of @jayhideaway carried the same viral video. It was shared on May 1, 2020 with the caption, "First a pandemic and now ALIENS?!?!?!"
Click here to view the post.
Jay Hideaway's TikTok profile also carried a link to his OpenSea account, a web-based marketplace for NFTs. Hideaway's bio read, "Original Apocalyptic Video Art," suggesting that his videos were created using computer graphics.
Click here to view.
Jay Hideaway had listed three of his videos for sale on this page, including the viral video which was titled 'The Visitors,' priced at 35 ETH (ether).
We also found that the post with the false claim on X had a community note below it, which led us to a page called @ufoofinterest.org that fact checks UFO videos.
According to @ufoofinterest.org's post, the viral video was created by an Andy Fortenbacher who later changed their account's name to Jay Hideaway.
We also found that the links to Andy Fortenbacher's TikTok profile were leading to Jay Hideaway's profile, confirming that the user had changed their name.
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