A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple Facebook posts published in July 2019 which claim it shows a volcano erupting in Jakarta — Indonesia’s capital.
The claim is false; the clip shows a volcano eruption close to the Indonesian city of Bandung, on July 26.
The six minute 30 second video was published on July 31, 2019 on a Facebook page entitled ‘JB 爆料网’ — or JB viral news network — which has more than 329,000 followers. The post has been shared more than 2,300 times.
The post’s simplified Chinese caption translates to English as: “Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta. The moment when a volcano erupted. (The sky) turned into darkness. The weather in our country is about to heat up. There will be more smoke around.”
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The claim is false; the volcano shown in the video is Tangkuban Perahu, which is located just north of Bandung, a city southeast of Jakarta.
The volcano’s location is shown below on Google Maps:
A reverse image search on Google of a keyframe from the video in the misleading posts found the same video published here on YouTube on July 27, 2019. The Indonesian-language headline translates as: “The Tangkuban Perahu volcanic eruption filmed by a vendor”. Tangkuban Perahu erupted on July 26, 2019, as reported by Metro TV, The Jakarta Post and India Today.
Parts of the video in the misleading Facebook posts correspond with the Metro TV video.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts at the three minutes 13 seconds mark (L) and the Metro TV video at the eleven minutes 35 seconds mark (R). The corresponding features have been circled in red:
