A video depicting a “giant wave in the Algarve” has garnered over 2.7 million views on Facebook, but the footage, created using artificial intelligence, is fake.
A 30th June post from a Portuguese woman, who appears to reside in Poitiers, France, shared a video on Facebook portraying destruction supposedly caused by a “giant wave in the Algarve.” The account has only 139 friends.
The 11-second clip shows a wave crashing onto a beach, sweeping away beachgoers and cars parked on the sand. It features several implausible scenes, such as vehicles being moved or a car door bursting open before the wave even reaches them.
Despite being evidently fanciful, the video has surpassed 2.7 million views by early Saturday morning. While many comments suggest the video is fabricated, some believe the imagery is genuine.
Revealed as an AI-generated fabrication, there have been no reports of any giant waves in the Algarve. Reverse image searches show the footage has been circulating for weeks, with other accounts spreading similar narratives. TikTok, for instance, featured a 8th June post titled “giant wave in Portugal,” attracting over 336,000 views.
One particular YouTube channel, ‘stat.us.x’, clearly states it produces fictional content, describing itself as “the Internet reimagined by AI.” It shares wild, eye-catching videos that blur lines between reality and imagination, intentionally designed to shock and entertain viewers.
This channel shared the same video on 1st June as “giant wave hits parking lot,” gaining 118,000 views, without reference to Portugal. A Google search for the account name leads to its social media presence under ‘stat.us.ai,’ where the same video was posted on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, also without mentioning Portugal. On TikTok, the video amassed over 34.6 million views.
Hala Homsi, a fact-checker for Lebanon’s An-Nahar, has scrutinized the video, noting its circulation in Arabic regions and erroneous association with areas like Miami in the U.S. The platform ‘stat.us.ai’ has a history of creating viral AI-generated videos, evidenced by a previous viral incident earlier this year.
Closer inspection of ‘stat.us.ai’ reveals ties to ‘Status Marketing,’ a digital marketing entity specializing in hyper-realistic AI-generated videos and training sessions.
Several anomalies in the video expose its artificial roots, such as oddly designed parking lots, overlapping vehicles, cars moving before the wave, and inconsistently appearing beach accessories. Attempts to contact the Facebook account holder who shared the Algarve-attributed video have gone unanswered.
The fact-check by Lusa Verifica concludes the purported giant wave video is false, produced by a digital marketing account that profits from fabricating and sharing spectacular AI-generated videos.
