Days after devastating floods ripped through the Nepal-Tibet border wiping out entire settlements, an AI-generated video was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed how the collapse of a dam in the Himalayan region had caused the disaster. The tsunami-like walls of water were in fact triggered by a high-altitude glacial collapse, and the circulating footage contains visual errors that indicate it was generated using AI.
"The collapse of a dam near Gyirong Port, close to the Nepal-Tibet border, has caused massive devastation," says part of the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video shared on August 31, 2026.
"The failure of the Chinese-built dam near the Nepal-Tibet border has triggered flash floods and endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people."
The video appears to show part of a massive dam collapsing, unleashing a wall of muddy water that rushes towards a settlement.
The same video was also shared in similar Facebook, Instagram and X posts after a giant wall of freezing water and debris tore through the Nepal-Tibet border region, burying homes, smashing bridges and sweeping away vehicles on August 26 ( archived link).
At least 1,385 people were killed, and more than 5,500 remain missing ( archived link).
But the disaster was not caused by the collapse of a dam in the region, as the posts claim.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), a high-altitude glacial collapse that sent a massive surge of ice and rock debris downstream triggered the devastating flooding ( archived link).
While the exact cause of the collapse is unclear, Nepal's foreign minister warned on August 29 of the growing threat from climate change in the Himalayas.
"The sudden glacial collapse and flash flood is a devastating reminder of how fragile these mountain environments can be," UN climate chief Simon Stiell also said.
A closer analysis of the circulating video also shows it contains numerous visual anomalies commonly found in AI-generated media.
At the start of the falsely shared video, a man running in the direction of the dam appears to morph into a separate person. The dam, which supposedly collapsed, is also shown to be largely intact.
In the second clip, showing the supposed flooding from the settlement downstream of the dam, a black car appears to disappear at the 24-second mark.
People gathered on the rooftops of buildings lining the road also have unnatural movements and do not appear to react to what is happening around them.
An analysis of the video using Meta's AI detector also found it contained digital signatures indicating that the video was likely generated using AI tools.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the disaster at the Nepal-Tibet border.