Over six million people have watched a fake livestream that was purportedly showing “the face of Hurricane Irma,” when in fact is was looped video footage of a cloud formation in New Brunswick from over six years ago.
On Monday, as Hurricane Irma fizzled down to a tropical storm, entertainment website EBUZZ posted a looped video on its Facebook page claiming to be a livestream of the powerful storm.
“Face of Hurricane Irma!” reads the fake livestream description.
READ MORE: Fake sharks, fake alligators, fake looters — fakery abounded in Harvey’s wake
The four-hour video is actually footage, looped over and over again, from a cloud formation that appears to show a face in the clouds. The footage was recorded by Denis Laforge, of Grand Falls, N.B., in August 2011.
As of Monday afternoon, the fake livestream had been seen over six million times and was shared another 87,000 times.
“Ok this feed is saying live but yet it keeps replaying? Impossible! Why do I feel this is doctored to get ppl in an uproar? Ppl don’t be gullible!” Maryann Greene commented on the video.
- German Christmas market attack: Police got tipoffs about suspect last year
- U.S. Navy pilots shot down over Red Sea in apparent ‘friendly fire’
- At least 10 are killed as a small plane crashes into a Brazilian town popular with tourists
- Israeli expert urges justice for both Israeli, Palestinian victims of sexual violence
“How the hell was this taken years ago when its being filmed live RIGHT NOW as we speak? And just started two hours ago,” wrote Samantha Leigh Kent.
Get daily National news
The cloud formation wasn’t the only fake video shared on social media as Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida over the weekend.
READ MORE: Earth won’t be cast into weeks of darkness in November, or at any other time
Footage of a flooded airport in Mexico began to make the rounds on Twitter and was said to be video from Miami International Airport.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s director of social media was among those who shared the video, which prompted the airport to correct Dan Scavino Jr.
“This video is not from Miami International Airport,” the airport tweeted at Scavino Jr.
The social media director has since deleted the tweet.
The fake Irma videos join the chorus of other fake news shared in the wake of a natural disaster. Hurricane Harvey brought out a swarm a storm-related news, we broke it down into categories found here.
Comments