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.<\/p>\n
“Mount Anak Krakatau’s eruption recorded at sea,” reads part of the Indonesian-language caption of a Facebook video<\/a> shared on July 5, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Screenshot of false post taken on July 8, 2026, with a red X and AI label added by AFP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The video was also shared in similar\u00a0 Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, Threads<\/a> and X posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n It surfaced days after\u00a0 Indonesia’s Geological Agency raised the volcano’s alert status<\/a> 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<\/a> (archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n The Anak Krakatau volcano is one of Indonesia’s most active, and its\u00a0 eruption and subsequent collapse<\/a> on December 22, 2018 sparked a deadly tsunami that killed more than 400 people and injured thousands ( archived link<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The circulating video, however, does not show Anak Krakatau erupting.<\/p>\n Local media reported<\/a> on several eruptions<\/a> after the video surfaced — on July 7 and 8 — that sent ash plumes hundreds of metres into the air (archived here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency<\/a> and the energy ministry’s Geological Agency<\/a> both dismissed the circulating clip as a “hoax” (archived\u00a0 here <\/a>and here<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n The Geological Agency also included photos showing recent eruptions captured by surveillance cameras.<\/p>\n‘Hoax’ video<\/h2>\n