Fake and AI-generated images spread online amid deadly Nepal floods

As deadly floods continue along the Nepal-China border, social media platforms have seen a surge of fake and misleading content falsely tied to the disaster. A France 24 fact-check, part of its Truth or Fake series, found that numerous viral posts are either AI-generated or old footage recycled from unrelated disasters in countries including India, Chile and Alaska.

One widely shared video, viewed more than 7 million times, appears to show floodwaters sweeping away vehicles and pedestrians. Despite being shared as evidence of the destruction in Nepal, the video is actually AI-generated, carrying a SynthID digital watermark that indicates it was made using Google's AI tools. Detection tools built by major tech companies such as Google and Meta are becoming increasingly important for verifying viral content during breaking news events.

Fabricated images and a misleading animal rescue

The fact-check also identified a fake before-and-after photo montage purporting to show a town's destruction; while genuine before-and-after images of the disaster do exist, this particular montage was found to be AI-generated. Separately, a video claiming to show an elephant rescuing a trapped man was falsely linked to the Nepal disaster. There are no credible reports of such a rescue occurring, and the footage was already circulating online weeks before the floods began. Meta's detection tools also flagged signs that this video was AI-generated.

Recycled footage from past disasters

Following reports that a glacier collapse may have contributed to the flash floods, several videos claiming to show the collapse near Nepal's border with Tibet were viewed millions of times. One was actually filmed years ago in Chilean Patagonia, while another showed Alaska's Columbia Glacier, previously posted by the pilot who originally filmed it. A separate video showing a flash flood sweeping through a valley, widely shared as current footage from Nepal, was actually filmed more than a year ago in Uttarakhand, India.

While the content examined was found to be fake or unrelated to Nepal, the disaster itself is real, and genuine footage of the flooding continues to emerge from affected areas.