Video of shaking highway filmed during earthquake in Taiwan, not New York
Dash-cam footage of a violently shaking highway in Taiwan's capital Taipei was falsely shared online as showing the small earthquake that rattled New York on April 5. The footage previously appeared in news reports about Taiwan's strongest quake in decades -- published days before the rare US East Coast tremor.
"New York earthquake," read the simplified Chinese sticker text on a TikTok video shared on April 5, 2024.
The 37-second dash-cam clip shows several vehicles stopping in an elevated highway as it started to shake violently.
The post surfaced shortly after a 4.8-magnitude quake jolted New York City and parts of the eastern coast of the United States.
UN Security Council diplomats were shaken in their chairs, planes got briefly grounded, and furniture rattled across the city but no one was hurt in the tremor.
Earthquakes were "uncommon but not unheard of" along the US Atlantic Coast, according to the USGS geology agency.
The clip was also shared alongside a similar false claim on YouTube, Instagram and social media site X.
In reality, it was filmed in a flyover in Taipei's commercial Xinyi District.
Misrepresented footage
Reverse image searches followed by keyword searches on Google found the video published by multiple news organisations including Taiwanese broadcaster CTS News on April 3, 2024 -- before the US quake (archived link).
The CTS News report was published on the same day Taiwan was struck by its strongest quake in 25 years, leaving at least 16 people dead and more than 1,140 injured.
Strict building codes and widespread disaster readiness were credited with averting an even bigger catastrophe.
The traditional Chinese title of the CTS News report translates as: "Elevated highway shakes violently during the strong earthquake".
A location marker and the voiceover also stated the footage was shot in Taipei.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the misrepresented footage (left) and the clip published by CTS News (right):
A screenshot comparison below shows a taxi visible in the report (left) matches the style of those commonly seen in Taiwan as shown in a photo from AFP (right):
Using other features seen in the video, such as safety barriers and the shape of the buildings, AFP geolocated the scene to a section of Taipei's Zhengqi Bridge, near where it merges with the Civic Boulevard, one of the city's main thoroughfares (archived links here and here).
The location can be seen on Google Street View imagery below:
Below is a screenshot comparison between the dash-cam footage published by CTS News (left) and Google Maps Street View imagery (right), with similarities marked by AFP:
AFP has debunked other false social media posts linking photos from Taiwan's earthquake to the tremor in New York here.
April 18, 2024 Updated caption of second screenshot comparison
