A video purporting to show Indonesia’s Anak Krakatoa volcano erupting spread quickly across social media, but AI tools created the footage. Shared thousands of times on X and social media, the clip also spread on Instagram and YouTube. Many viewers assumed it showed the recent eruption. Closer examination found a digital fake, not a real record of the event.
The timing helped the video go viral: Anak Krakatoa did erupt in the early hours of Sunday, September 6, information from Indonesia’s official MAGMA system. Indonesia’s Geological Agency said a series of eruptions with lava fountains began on September 4, 2026, at 23:00 and stopped on September 6 at 00:04 WIB. But the viral video shows an eruption in daylight, immediately raising questions. The volcano in the clip also appears much closer to a town than the real Anak Krakatoa, which stands alone in the Sunda Strait, far from any city.
Several details in the video don’t add up. The lava is too bright and blends oddly with the smoke, unlike in real eruptions, where the two appear separately. The volcano looks oversized beside the supposed town, while the lighting on buildings and cars never changes, as if the scene were frozen. The footage is too clean and polished, lacking the messiness and shifting colors of real disaster videos.
Major news agencies published genuine images and video from the actual eruption. EFE and Associated Press were among them, as was France 24. None matched the viral clip. The eruption forced seven airports to close, including Jakarta’s basic airport, and disrupted travel for 270,000 passengers because of volcanic ash. Reuters and AP reported that as many as eight airports were closed at various points during the first 24 hours after the eruption, including both Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta and Halim Perdanakusuma. By September 8, Indonesia’s Ministry of Transport said volcanic ash had affected 2,961 flights and approximately 341,000 passengers, well above earlier estimates. The real consequences differed sharply from the spectacle shown in the AI-generated video.
Technical checks also found the video was fake. Hive Moderation, an AI detection service, analyzed the clip and found with 98.9% certainty that artificial intelligence had generated it. That assessment matches the visual evidence and the discrepancies in timing and location.
Convincing fake videos like this pose a growing problem for the public and authorities. When AI-generated clips look real, misinformation can spread quickly, especially during emergencies when people need accurate updates. The real Anak Krakatoa eruption seriously affected air travel and safety, but the viral video gave a false impression of what happened and where.
As AI tools become easier to use, newsrooms and the public will need to check visual content more carefully. Digital fakes can spread faster than facts, making careful review and technical analysis impressive.
