Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau erupted in early July, shooting towering columns of ash hundreds of metres into the sky, but a video circulating on social media claiming to show the eruption is AI-generated. The country’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency and Geological Agency dismissed what they called the “hoax” clip, which has been circulating online since at least November 2025.
“Mount Anak Krakatau’s eruption recorded at sea,” reads part of the Indonesian-language caption of a Facebook video shared on July 5, 2026.
The video — viewed more than 62,000 times — appears to show several people on a boat using their mobile phones to record the purported eruption, which turns the sky red and blue. A warning for vessels in the Sunda Strait about the eruption can be heard in the background.
Screenshot of false post taken on July 8, 2026, with a red X and AI label added by AFP
The video was also shared in similar Instagram, TikTok, Threads and X posts.
It surfaced days after Indonesia’s Geological Agency raised the volcano’s alert status from Level II (Alert) to Level III (Watch) — the second-highest level in the country’s four-tier volcanic alert system — citing an escalation in volcanic activity (archived here and here).
The Anak Krakatau volcano is one of Indonesia’s most active, and its eruption and subsequent collapse on December 22, 2018 sparked a deadly tsunami that killed more than 400 people and injured thousands ( archived link).
Authorities established an exclusion zone around the volcano in early July, warning local residents, fishermen and tourists to stay clear because of the risk of an eruption.
The circulating video, however, does not show Anak Krakatau erupting.
Local media reported on several eruptions after the video surfaced — on July 7 and 8 — that sent ash plumes hundreds of metres into the air (archived here and here).
‘Hoax’ video
Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency and the energy ministry’s Geological Agency both dismissed the circulating clip as a “hoax” (archived here and here).
The Geological Agency also included photos showing recent eruptions captured by surveillance cameras.
Screenshots of CCTV videos shared by the Geological Agency showing eruptions on July 2 and July 3
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches found the same clip, albeit without audio, had been posted on TikTok on November 5, 2025.
Part of its lengthy caption reads, “Krakatau Eruption: Lava Rain at Sea During Our Boat Trip”. The clip also carries TikTok’s AI warning label.
A closer look at the video shows it contains visual errors that are telltale signs of AI-generated content.
The eruption is not visible on the screens of phones supposedly recording the event, and the eruptions themselves appear unnatural with smoke columns shifting from bright purple to red to orange.
Screenshots of the falsely shared video, with visual errors highlighted by AFP
An analysis using the University at Buffalo’s DeepFake-o-Meter detection tool indicates the probability of both the clip and its audio being AI-generated is “high” ( archived link).
Screenshot of results from the DeepFake-o-Meter
AFP has previously debunked other false claims about volcano eruptions that used AI-generated content.