Millions Fall for Fake Video of Eiffel Tower on Fire

A CGI clip showing the Eiffel Tower on fire went viral on TikTok and X this week, fooling millions of users before fact-checkers could correct the record. The clip, a nine-second hyperrealistic animation posted on YouTube last July by Augmented One, a 3D visualization studio in Yerevan, Armenia, was labeled as visual effects in its title and description. Fact-checkers from VerifyThis and Reuters disproved the claim by checking the tower's livestream footage, official accounts and local government officials, and reverse-searching the clip, yet many users remained convinced the tower was in danger.