Mount Kanlaon on the central Philippine island of Negros erupted on the night of June 3, forcing at least 2,800 people to evacuate to emergency centers due to falling ash, gases and the threat of lahars from the volcano.
State volcanology agency Phivolcs raised the alert level for the volcano from one to two on a scale of zero to five, warning that more explosive eruptions were possible.
But the video shows Anak Krakatau volcano in Indonesia erupting in 2018, not Kanlaon volcano in the Philippines in June 2024.
Indonesian eruption
Google searches using inverted images of the video’s keyframes, followed by keyword searches on YouTube, found a video uploaded by user Martin Rietze on November 6, 2018, which has been viewed more than 13 million times (archived link) .
The caption of the video read in part: “Anak Krakatau vanic activity at night, October 24-26, 2018. Eruptions filmed in real time, not time-lapse!”
The user is a Germany-based photographer who often posts high-definition images of volcanoes on his official website and YouTube channel (archived links here and here).
The fake messages show a mirrored and sped-up version of the 2018 video down to the 20-second mark.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the fake video (left) and Anak Krakatau’s 2018 video (right):
The same footage was also published by video agency Newsflare, in Rietze’s name (archived link).
Indonesian media outlets Liputan 6 and Tempo.co as well reported The volcanic activity of Anak Krakatau on October 24, 2018 (archived links here and here).
Phivolcs director Teresito Bacolcol told AFP on June 4 that the eruption in the circulating video did not show the recent eruption of Mount Kanlaon.
Real photos of the Kanlaon volcano eruption were published by AFP citing witnesses Irish Casag and Dollet Demaflies, as shown in the screenshot below:
The Philippines is periodically hit by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ – a zone of intense seismic activity.
AFP has previously reported on other volcanic disinformation here.
