A video claiming that a massive aquarium collapsed in California, killing 50 people, has gone viral on Instagram and TikTok. The clip appears to show a giant aquarium, filled with thousands of fish, shattering and crashing down on a crowd of onlookers.
Here's the truth
The video is completely AI-generated. No such incident has occurred in California.
Many social media users quickly flagged the video as fake. One user commented, “It’s definitely to AI. No big aquarium collapse ever happened in California. There was one in Berlin, but no humans died. Unfortunately 1500 fish did.”
Another wrote, “Ha they didn't get me this time. So glad I looked it up!!”
A third person added, “Why does this look like AI to me. Fake incident, fake video.”
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2022 Berlin aquarium collapse
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2022 Berlin aquarium collapse
{{/usCountry}}The video may have been inspired by a real event that occurred in Berlin in December 2022.
The ‘AquaDom’, the world’s largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium, suddenly burst in the lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel. The 82-foot-tall structure held nearly 1,500 exotic fish, including blue tang and clownfish, made famous by the movie Finding Nemo.
The rupture caused extensive flooding in the hotel and nearby streets. While no human fatalities were reported, nearly all the fish inside the AquaDom died. However, around 400 to 500 smaller fish from separate aquariums under the hotel lobby were successfully evacuated and relocated to a nearby facility.
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Photos and videos from the scene showed debris scattered in front of the hotel’s entrance. The AquaDom had been a major tourist attraction since its opening in 2003.