A TikTok video claiming to show an earthquake in Addis Ababa in October 2024 is partly misleading, as the footage dates back to a 2022 earthquake in Japan. Though a low-magnitude earthquake occurred in Addis Ababa on that date, the video in question does not represent this incident.
A recent TikTok post claimed to show an earthquake in Addis Ababa’s Summit area on October 6, 2024, but investigations reveal that this assertion is only partly accurate. While it is true that a low-magnitude earthquake was reported in Addis Ababa on that date, the video in question is not from the incident in Ethiopia. Through a reverse image search, it was found that the footage originally surfaced in 2022, related to a tsunami warning issued for Japan following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Fukushima. The post, written in Amharic, described an earthquake occurring at night in Addis Ababa but does not represent the true nature of the events depicted in the video.
The context surrounding this incident involves the dissemination of misinformation on social media regarding significant events like earthquakes. Current advancements have enabled the rapid spread of misleading content across platforms, prompting organizations such as PesaCheck to rigorously investigate the veracity of such claims. On October 6, 2024, an actual earthquake did occur in Addis Ababa, which was felt in notable locations. However, the viral video from TikTok misrepresents the event by using unrelated footage from another location and time, leading to widespread confusion.
In conclusion, while an earthquake did occur in Addis Ababa on October 6, 2024, claims about the associated video being from that event are partly false. The video does not depict the Ethiopia earthquake but instead is an old clip related to a different seismic event in Japan. This highlights the necessity for properly vetting information shared on social media to combat misinformation.
Original Source: pesacheck.org
