by The strong earthquakes in Turkey, early last week, have spread information and misinformation on social networks. In a video that Facebook flagged as potentially dubious, a building can be seen collapsing, supposedly after the “magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey” on February 5. But it was neither now nor in this country.
On February 6 — and not on the 5th, as stated in the article under analysis — there were two strong earthquakes that hit the region between Turkey and Syria. The first occurred shortly after 1 a.m. and measured 7.8 on the Richter scale – which the publication says. And, around ten in the morning, there was a second earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.5, which occurred about 90 kilometers from the first, as described by the IPMA for this event.
The two affected countries have suffered a significant impact in terms of infrastructure destruction and more than 40,000 deaths have been recorded so far. Several buildings collapsed after the tremors, and many people are still missing, while several operations are underway to search for survivors.
Earthquake in Turkey. The moment a building collapses in Khalilie
However, the video posted on this Facebook share is not a building in Turkey or Syria. The video, the original version of which is on YouTube, concerns the collapse of a twelve-story building in Miami, in the United States of America.
It happened in June 2021 in Surfside, Florida, with the building collapsing and causing 98 deaths — of the 136 apartments that made up the condominium, 70 were “totally destroyed,” according to authorities. At the time, President Joe Biden even authorized the declaration of a state of emergency.
The causes of the accident, according to the New York Times of the time, would be problems with the building’s foundation.
The collapsing building in this post shared on Facebook has nothing to do with the earthquakes that occurred this week in Turkey and Syria. These are images related to the collapse of part of a building, in 2021, in Miami.
So, according to the Observer’s classification system, this content is:
WRONG
In Facebook’s rating system this content is:
FALSE: The main content claims are factually inaccurate. This option usually corresponds to “false” or “mostly false” reviews on fact-checking sites.
NOTE: this content was selected by the Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
