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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Disasters & emergencies fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about disasters & emergencies. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,259 published reviews in this topic

Fact Crescendo CambodiaDisasters & emergencies

A viral photo showing a rescue dog was circulated on social media. It was claimed and linked to the recent Turkey earthquake. This post was reacted to with mixed comments and shared by many Facebook users who are speaking Khmer. However, a Google Reverse Image search proves that the claim attached to the above photo was false.

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a photo of a mud-covered dog shared on Facebook in February 2023 alongside a story that the dog had rescued as many as 10 people after the recent Turkey earthquake. The review says the post circulated among Khmer-speaking users and drew mixed reactions. Its investigation focused on whether the image showed a dog involved in that earthquake rescue, rather than whether rescue dogs can help after disasters generally. To check the image’s origin, the publisher reports using Google Reverse Image Search. That search led it to an exact match published by Reuters in 2014. The review identifies the dog as Tryon and says the photograph showed him at a disinfection site after a search for victims in the Oso area of Washington state—not at the site of the 2023 Turkey earthquake. The review therefore ties the viral image to an earlier, different event and location. Its account of the photograph’s provenance contradicts the post’s claim that the pictured dog was rescuing earthquake victims in Turkey. The excerpt also notes that the Associated Press had checked the case, but does not provide AP’s findings, so this explanation relies on the image-search result and provenance described in the original review.

El Detector / Univision NoticiasDisasters & emergencies

Video grabado desde un cruce de vías muestra cómo "se vino el tornado" en Dallas.

Publisher’s rating: Fuera de contexto

The claim concerns a video posted on March 2, 2023, that gave the impression a tornado was in Dallas during severe storms. The review says the post’s text read “Se vino el tornado,” and its uploader’s profile indicated Dallas. However, it identifies the footage as an earlier tornado in Andover, Kansas—not a scene from Dallas during the 2023 storms. To trace the video’s origin, the reviewers searched Google Images in reverse using a frame from the viral clip. They found the same recording in a Facebook post from August 2022, which shared a post published by the verified storm-chaser profile Live Storm Chasers on August 17, 2022. That post identified the tornado as having occurred in Andover on April 29, 2022. The review also describes a visual comparison: a photograph published by AccuWeather on May 2, 2022, about the Andover tornado shows the same railway-crossing location as the video, including the same sign and store. The review therefore concludes that the footage was real tornado video but was misrepresented by its Dallas framing; it depicts the 2022 Kansas event, not a tornado in Dallas in March 2023.

FACTLYDisasters & emergencies

Video shows scenes from Turkey before and after the recent earthquake. It shows people dancing joyfully in Turkey days before the earthquake.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined a social-media post that presented two clips as scenes from Turkey before and after the recent earthquake, claiming the dancing shown in one clip took place in Turkey days beforehand. It concluded that the dancing footage was not filmed there: the review identified its location as ZouZou Restaurant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The other clip was also attributed to the same person, but was posted after the earthquake and showed a different location. The review therefore found the juxtaposition did not establish that the dancing footage showed pre-earthquake scenes in Turkey. [S1: “A post is being shared widely on social media with a claim that it shows the scenes from Turkey before and after the recent earthquake.”; “The locations in the before and after videos are not the same.”] To identify the dancing clip’s location, the review reports noticing a “ZouZou” restaurant sign in the video and searching for matching material. It says it found a similar clip on ZouZou Restaurant’s official social-media account, where the dancer was tagged, and the exact clip on his Instagram account. The review also describes a YouTube video in which he identified the footage as being from Dubai. Together, these reported checks link the dancing clip to Dubai rather than Turkey. [S1: “one can observe that there is a restaurant board – ‘ZouZou’ in the dancing clip.”; “we found a similar video on the official social media handle of ‘ZouZou Restaurant’. A person with the name – ‘Çılgın Dondurmacı’ is tagged in that post.”; “In his YouTube video, he clearly mentioned that it is from Dubai.”] The review says the dancer, identified as “Çılgın Dondurmacı,” posted the exact dancing clip on Instagram on 18 December 2022. It also cites a ZouZou Restaurant post announcing that he would be at its JBR Dubai location from 16 to 18 December 2022, and says the hotel location matched the video’s visuals. These details support the review’s identification of the dancing footage as Dubai footage, not scenes from Turkey before the earthquake. [S1: “The exact dancing video clip can be found to be posted on his Instagram account on 18 December 2022.”; “The hotel location also matches the visuals in the video clip.”]

dpaDisasters & emergencies

Une nouvelle vidéo montre la rupture de la croûte terrestre à Hatay, en Turquie.

Publisher’s rating: Ces images n’ont rien à voir avec la province d’Hatay, une zone de la Turquie lourdement touchée par les tremblements de terre du 6 février 2023. Elles ont été filmées en Chine, et remontent à novembre 2022 au moins.

The video was presented as showing a large fissure in Hatay, Turkey, after the earthquakes of 6 February 2023. The review says the footage was instead filmed in China and dates to at least November 2022. Its account describes a reverse-image search that found the same fissures in a YouTube video published on 4 November 2022; it also says the YouTube title identifies Pinglu, a district in Shanxi province in northern China. The review reports further location checks using Google Maps satellite imagery. It says the nearby body of water and building, along with the straight layout of the roads, match features visible in the footage. It also identifies a shot from the circulating video in a Douyin post dated 2 November 2022. Together, those findings place the footage in China and establish that it predates the February 2023 earthquakes, rather than documenting a new rupture in Hatay.