What was claimed
Images and videos show the devastating floods in Nepal.
Our verdict
False. The images and clips are either AI-generated or show floods in other countries.
AAP FACTCHECK - Facebook users are sharing photos and videos falsely claiming to show deadly flooding in Nepal.
The region straddling the Himalayan border between China and Nepal experienced catastrophic flash flooding on Wednesday, August 26, local time.
While many images and videos online are genuine, some social media users have posted either AI-generated content or clips of unrelated disasters.
One Facebook post (below) features a dramatic before-and-after image supposedly showing the flood’s trail of destruction through an unspecified town.
Meta has labelled the post as "AI content", indicating the images could be AI-generated.
OpenAI’s detection software also found invisible watermarks, known as SynthID, confirming it was AI-generated.
Dozens of other social media accounts have republished the same fabricated images.
One YouTube video (below), for example, opens with the fake images before showing a video of bridges straining and collapsing amid a raging torrent.
But YouTube has flagged this video’s sounds and visuals as altered or generated using AI.
Google’s SynthID tool also confirms the clips were generated using AI.
Another X account posted an image purportedly showing locals, tourists and rescue workers watching on as a flooded river tears through a valley, with helicopters in flight up above.
This too was machine-made, OpenAI’s SynthID tool reveals, and also carries a "Made with AI" label at the bottom of the post.
Another Facebook post purporting to show the disaster in Nepal has lifted footage of a mudslide in Japan, a Google reverse image search reveals.
The original clip was published by Nine.com.au on July 3, 2021, and shows a landslide in the city of Atami, Japan, where 27 people died.
The clip has been reversed in the Facebook post but is otherwise unaltered.
Similarly, a video on X with a Spanish caption claims thousands have died and thousands more are missing.
"NEPAL | CHINA | URGENT - THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE BURIED ALIVE, VILLAGES WIPED OFF THE MAP: HUMANS ARE NOTHING BEFORE NATURE," a translation of the post reads.
"In seconds the avalanche swept everything away, made entire villages disappear, thousands of people have died and thousands more are missing."
The post also includes a clip of a mudslide coming down a hillside and slamming into a village, which actually shows a natural disaster in India more than a year earlier.
At the time of writing, the number of people confirmed dead in Nepal was 160, with 558 believed missing, according to live coverage from BBC News.
The original clip was posted on X on August 6, 2025, and captioned as showing a natural disaster in Dharali village in Uttarakhand, India.
The Dharali incident resulted in 61 deaths and 84 people missing, according to a paper in Natural Hazards Research.
The Nepal disaster has also provided fodder for conspiracy theorists.
A genuine video of the landslide is included in a Facebook post claiming the disaster was “made by HAARP”.
HAARP stands for High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a US military-built research facility operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
AAP FactCheck has debunked numerous false claims about HAARP’s ability to control the weather, which scientists have dismissed as nonsense.
The United States Geological Survey has pointed to a “glacial collapse” as being responsible for the seismic activity detected in relation to the flash flooding in Nepal.
FC Nepal FloodsAAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
