A Volcano Video Claims to Show Indonesia’s Real Eruption — It’s Actually a Year Old and Fake
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340,000+
Real Passengers Stranded
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10 Months
How Old the Fake Video Is
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2
Times This Clip's Been Debunked
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Medium
Fooled Index
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AI-GENERATED — The eruption is real. This specific video of it is not, and it's not even new.
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On September 8, 2026, Mount Anak Krakatau erupted, sending volcanic ash across Greater Jakarta, Lampung, and other parts of Indonesia. The eruption was real and disruptive: more than 340,000 passengers were left stranded as Indonesia's main international airport, Soekarno-Hatta, along with seven other airports, shut down, and hundreds of flights were cancelled.
A dramatic video of a massive eruption began spreading on the same day, shared as if it showed the real event. It didn't. Reverse image searches combined with keyword searches traced the footage to an earlier TikTok post from November 5, 2025, ten months before Anak Krakatau actually erupted. The video is AI-generated, not real footage of any eruption at all.
This wasn't even the first time this exact clip fooled people. The same video had already circulated in a separate false claim that AFP debunked back in July 2026, and Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency and the energy ministry's Geological Agency both had already dismissed the clip as a hoax at that time. The Geological Agency posted its own real surveillance footage of the actual eruption on its official X account for comparison, and the difference between the two is stark.
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The video predates the real eruption by ten months. A reverse image search traced the clip to a TikTok post from November 5, 2025, long before Anak Krakatau actually erupted in September 2026.
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It's already been debunked once before. The exact same video previously circulated in a different false claim that AFP identified as a hoax back in July 2026.
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Indonesia's own disaster agencies confirmed it's fake. Both the National Disaster Mitigation Agency and the Geological Agency dismissed the clip as a hoax months before it resurfaced.
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Real surveillance footage exists for comparison. The Geological Agency posted its own genuine CCTV footage of the eruption, giving people something real to check the fake clip against.
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🚨 100% AI-Generated
Mount Anak Krakatau really did erupt on September 8, 2026, disrupting hundreds of thousands of travelers. But the dramatic video shared alongside the news is AI-generated and nearly a year old, already debunked once before under a completely different false claim.
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That Panicked Call From Your Grandchild Asking for Bail Money? It Might Be an AI Clone
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Scammers are increasingly using AI to clone a family member's voice from just a few seconds of audio scraped off a video or social media clip, then using that cloned voice to fake a frantic emergency call asking for money. According to Hiya's State of the Call 2026 report, 1 in 4 Americans have received a deepfake voice call in the past year, and one respondent described her 90-year-old mother refusing to answer the phone alone for months after a call using a cloned voice of her grandson. The scam typically follows the same script: a panicked voice claims to be under arrest, hurt in a crash, or stranded, often asking the person not to tell anyone else in the family, before a second caller poses as a lawyer or bail bondsman and asks for payment through wire transfer, gift cards, or a courier who arrives at the door. The FTC's official advice is to hang up and call the person back on a number you already had, since AI can clone a voice, but it can't answer a question only your real family member would know.
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YOUR REALITY DETECTOR TOOLKIT |
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Today’s Skill: Verify Before You Trust What You See or Hear
A convincing video or a familiar voice is no longer proof enough on its own.
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Run a reverse image search before you share
The volcano video had already existed online for ten months before this eruption happened. A reverse image or video search can catch a recycled clip in seconds.
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Call back on a number you already had
The FTC's top advice for a panicked "family emergency" call is to hang up and dial the person back yourself. A cloned voice can't answer if a real relative picks up on the number you actually trust.
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Compare against an official source's real record
Indonesia's Geological Agency posted its own genuine footage of the eruption. When a real institution shares authentic footage or a known fact, it gives you something solid to check a viral claim against.
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