LONDON: London’s Big Ben clock tower was not set alight in January, despite fake footages of the tower in flames circulating on different platforms of social media.
Images and videos of the Elizabeth Tower, informally known as Big Ben, appearing to be on fire surfaced on social media especially on TikTok on January 25 with people pictured standing in front of the British landmark, Reuters reported.
Screenshots of the video, that had collected more than 30,000 likes were later shared further on TikTok and Facebook. However, there is no record of a fire in January 2024 reported on the UK Parliament’s official website for the clock tower.
Fact Check
Similarly, the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan also did not issue any announcement regarding such a fire through the Mayor of London website or on his social media, nor did the London Police issue any statement over the matter.
The social media account that posted the initial viral TikTok video later posted a clip, opens new tab of smoke billowing from the Elizabeth tower, with a face appearing in the smoke. The social media user used the hashtag “AI” in the caption of the video.
The social media account did not issue any statement over the matter. The new video surfaced following fake images of Paris’ Eiffel Tower ablaze surfaced on social media in mid-January. All these developments showed that the Big Ben was not set alight in January and images circulating on social media are fake.
