Fact Check: AI video goes viral as actual footage of Colombia earthquake

The death toll from Colombia’s largest earthquake in years and its aftershocks crossed the 200 mark on August 12. Over 3,000 people are still reported missing. A 7.4-magnitude quake struck the South American nation with its epicentre 400 kilometres west of the capital, Bogota.A video of a high-rise collapsing into rubble has now gone viral on social media. Allegedly, this was from Colombia.However, India Today Fact Check found that this video is AI-generated. OUR PROBEWe noticed several inconsistencies in the video which pointed to it being synthetic. First, as the building falls, the surrounding buildings do not even move, which wouldn’t have been the case if it was an actual earthquake. Second, some onlookers standing on the road do not respond naturally when such a massive building falls over them. They don’t seem to panic — or move at all. We then used detection tools to verify this. Google’s AI identification tool, SynthID, concluded that the video was AI-generated. This means that the video was generated using Google’s AI tools.According to the New York Times, at least 1,575 homes, 18 health centres, and 52 schools have been damaged by the earthquake in Colombia. Visuals of the destruction can be viewed here.Thus, we concluded that the viral video does not actually show the earthquake in Colombia.- EndsPublished By: Pathikrit SanyalPublished On: Aug 12, 2026 20:36 IST