A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) claims that on 04 January 2025, an earthquake occurred in Dubai, followed by an explosion, causing numerous fatalities and widespread destruction of homes. The video is shared with claims that these are visuals from the scene. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows visuals of an earthquake that occurred in Dubai.
Fact: The viral video is AI-generated and does not depict an earthquake in Dubai. While it is true that a 2.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Falaj Al Mualla area of Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on 28 December 2024, this video is unrelated to that incident. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify this, we conducted a Google search and found that a 2.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Falaj Al Mualla area of Umm Al Quwain, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on 28 December 2024. However, we found no reports of any earthquake on 04 January 2025 in the UAE. Additionally, no media reports link the viral video to the UAE or the 28 December 2024 earthquake.
We then conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video, which led us to the original video (archived) posted on TikTok on 14 December 2024, a date preceding the alleged earthquake as claimed in the viral posts. Nowhere in the video was it mentioned that the visuals were from Dubai.
We observed that this TikTok handle frequently posts such videos, and his bio mentions that he uploads AI-generated movie videos.
To sum up, the viral video does not show visuals of an earthquake and explosion in Dubai, it is an AI-generated video.
