By: Sam Doak
September 11 2023
A video of a building collapsing has been misattributed to the recent earthquake in Morocco
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
This video was recorded in Casablanca on August 5, 2020.
Claim ID 665f290b
Context
On September 8, 2023, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred in Morocco. With its epicenter located around 70 km from Morocco, the quake caused damage in numerous urban areas and killed at least 2,000 people.
In the wake of this disaster, social media users have shared a significant number of misattributed videos, falsely claiming that they show recent events in Morocco. One such video, circulating widely on X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Facebook, shows a multi-story building collapsing at night. The visible lights on two of its upper floors suggest it was occupied during or immediately preceding the collapse.
Numerous users have shared this video over the last few days. One post on X, captioned, “This is scary. Prayers for the people of Morocco,” has been reposted over 500 times and liked by more than 3,100 users.
Despite this clip going viral, Logically Facts has determined it was not filmed during the recent earthquake.
In fact
A reverse image search reveals that footage of this event has been circulating online since August 2020. One YouTube channel, Al Alam TV, claimed that it showed “A residential house collapsed in Sabata, Casablanca.” Logically Facts searched for Arabic-language news coverage published around this time to verify this. This revealed an article published by Hespress, a large Moroccan online news outlet, on August 6, 2020, concerning a house collapse in Casablanca.
Hespress’ coverage included a video showing the same event captured in the now-viral clip. On the events surrounding the building’s collapse, the outlet states, “The city of Casablanca was shaken, on Wednesday night, by the collapse of a three-story house in the Al-Masoudi neighborhood in the province of Sabta, leaving one person dead and heavy material losses.” Residents had observed large cracks in the building before its collapse.
The verdict
This clip does not show a building collapsing during the recent earthquake in Morocco. It was recorded on the evening of August 5, 2020, and reported on the following day by local news outlets. This claim has, therefore, been marked as false.