Unrelated old videos shared as the recent footage of devastating floods in Libya - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 14, 2023
After the devastating floods caused by Storm Daniel claimed the lives of over 8,000 people in Libya, multiple videos are being shared on social media claiming that they show the recent visuals of devastating floods in Libya. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Videos showing the recent devastating floods in Libya.
Fact: All these videos show either CGI videos or unrelated old visuals related to devastating floods caused in different countries. The videos have nothing to do with the recent floods in Libya. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
Video 1:
A video is being shared on social media claiming it shows visuals of massive floods submerging a bridge in Libya. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, videos showing the same visuals were found posted by several social media users in 2016. A few of those posts can be seen here and here. These users mentioned it is the devastating floods seen at Al Farshah village in the Aseer province of Saudi Arabia.
When we searched for further sources using relevant keywords, we found an extended version of the video published on ‘Daralakhbar.com’ news site’s Facebook page on 09 April 2016.  This news channel reported it is the visuals of a massive torrent blocking the roads in Al-Farshah village in Tihama Qahtan area of Saudi Arabia. Reporting the same news, several other news sites have also published the same video in 2016.
Video 2:
Another video is being shared on social media claiming it is the visuals of a tornado sweeping streets during the massive rainstorm in Libya. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, a video showing similar visuals was found published on the Shutterstock website. The original video does not show the visuals of a tornado. This Shutterstock page published the video with the title, “Hurricane Damage in Coastal Town.” The video was contributed by Cinematic Storm Footage.
When we searched for further sources using these keywords, we found the same video published on a YouTube page named @rtsarovvideo. This YouTube channel published many similar videos of tornadoes sweeping the streets. In the About section of the video, this YouTube channel mentioned that they create edited videos related to severe climatic conditions and natural disasters.
To sum it up, unrelated old videos are shared as the recent footage of devastating floods in Libya.