This article is part of The Globe’s initiative to cover dis- and misinformation. E-mail us to share tips or feedback at disinfodesk@globeandmail.com.
A number of individual videos and edited sequences are being shared on social media with the false claim they are of Hurricane Milton hitting Florida. The Globe used reverse image searches of freeze-frames from the videos to find where they originally came from.
People sharing these videos may be showing genuine concern for people affected and unaware they are misleading, while others appear to be trying to increase their engagement on social media.
Videos posted to TikTok and YouTube use the same misleading clips
A number of videos posted to social media that falsely claim to be from Hurricane Milton share some or all of the same clips taken from other storms. Some versions flip the video horizontally so movement that was left-to-right is now right-to-left. We are not directly linking to the videos so they are not amplified.
In this example, two different YouTube channels and two different TikTok accounts shared the same shots, which included this moment of a roof peeling off a building.
Screenshot of videos from two different YouTube accounts (top) and two different TikTok accounts falsely claiming the shot is from Hurricane Milton.YouTube, TikTok
The shot is from a storm that hit the city of Sumaré, Brazil in October, 2023.
This dramatic shot of a structure being torn apart is not from Hurricane Milton.
Screenshot of a video posted to TikTok falsely claiming to be of Hurricane Milton.TikTok
The shot is actually from 2015’s Hurricane Michael.
Misleading posts may be attempting to grow an account’s audience
Several accounts on X shared the same shot of huge storm clouds looming over a beach. It’s from Florida in June, 2021, not any recent hurricane.
Screenshot of a post on X of a video falsely claiming to show Hurricane Milton.X
The X account that shared this has a link on its profile to crowdfunding site Buy Me a Coffee. The Buy Me a Coffee page uses AI-generated images of a blonde woman with an offer to chat for US$5 a month.
Combination of two screenshots of a Buy Me a Coffee page. Main image of a blonde woman is AI-generated, inset with the benefits of paying the account's monthly fee.
Reverse image search is a powerful tool
Reverse image search can reveal where the same or a similar visual has been used before
Google Chrome on mobile and desktop has this capability built into the browser. Other tools for reverse image searches include TinEye and Bing Visual Search.
Long-pressing on an image on mobile Chrome will bring up a menu with Search Image with Google as an option. On desktop, Google Lens can be accessed in Chrome by the three-dot “more” menu at the top right, or by clicking on the address bar to activate it. Lens is also accessible from any browser by visiting images.google.com.
Screenshots of Google Lens being activated from the address bar (top), and then showing search results for the selected image of Ted Cruz.