Does video show the earthquake leveling an ‘entire block of unfinished houses’ in Taiwan? No

The magnitude 7.4 earthquake that rocked Taiwan on April 3 killed at least 10 people, injured more than 1,000 and trapped many others, according to initial reports. The powerful quake also damaged roads and more than 100 buildings.

But one viral video that an X user claimed showed some of the earthquake’s destruction is misrepresented. 

"Houses of cards collapse: An entire block of unfinished houses collapsed as a result of an earthquake in Taiwan," a paid X subscriber wrote in one April 3 post that included a video of several light-colored high-rise buildings crumpling to the ground in a cloud of dust. "Death toll from Taiwan earthquake rises to 934 - local media." 

Other X users later appended a community note, X’s term for user-submitted context that sometimes appears on posts if a consensus of users deem it incorrect or misleading.

(Screenshot from X.)

The community note is correct: This video does not show damage in Taiwan from the earthquake. News reports and earlier posts of the video show that the clip captured the 2021 controlled demolition of buildings in China. 

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stated on April 2, 2024 in an Instagram post

“The National Guard in the HISTORY of its life, gets called in AFTER a disaster, not BEFORE something happens.”

We also found no reports that the death toll from the quake has surpassed 10 people. As of about 11 a.m. Eastern time April 4, 11 people remained missing and more than 700 needed rescue, ABC News reported.

A reverse-image search of frames of the video shows that the video predates the April 3 earthquake. In one clip, which was posted to YouTube June 24, 2023, the description read: "15 building(s) demolished in China."

USA Today in August 2021 posted a video titled, "15 buildings in China get demolished simultaneously." The footage is not identical to the X post’s clip, but the buildings and the way they collapse is visually similar — down to the fact that one structure remains upright even after it appears to partially collapse. 

"The 15 buildings that stood next to each other for seven years were demolished in China," reads the video description. "They were abandoned with rain damage."

The video clip from the X post was also falsely tied to the deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria in 2023, Agence France-Presse Fact Check reported. 

We rate the claim that this video shows that "an entire block of unfinished houses collapsed as a result of an earthquake in Taiwan" False.