Fact check: Tourist videos of Mount Etna eruption are real, not AI-generated

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Fact check: Tourist videos of Mount Etna eruption are real, not AI-generated  Online confusion has spread following Mount Etna's eruption on 2 June. Some users have called into question real footage of the incident, while others have shared old images of the volcano in action.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/06/16/fact-check-tourist-videos-of-mount-etna-eruption-are-real-not-ai-generated  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00Verifying images of Mount Etna's eruption

00:07Europe's largest and most active volcano, Mount Etna, which is located on the east coast of the

00:13island of Sicily, erupted on the 2nd of June. The major incident caused the volcano to spew ash,

00:20gas and rock at a level of intensity which has not been recorded since February 2021.

00:26Mount Etna frequently erupts and is marked the 14th episode since March. However,

00:31its outbursts rarely cause significant damage or injuries. This latest incident may have been

00:38well documented but online users have been calling into question how real footage like this,

00:43which shows hikers fleeing from the volcano, really is. Some have claimed the video was

00:48generated of artificial intelligence. Although AI videos claiming to show Mount Etna have been

00:53shared online, these images are authentic and have been shared widely by reputable media organizations.

01:01Local authorities issued warnings on the morning of the 2nd of June, stating that the volcano had

01:06increased its activity levels, but some hikers still chose to venture onto Mount Etna. As AI becomes

01:13more and more sophisticated, its ability to produce content which is indissociable from real-life images

01:18increases too. This leads online users to be suspicious of extraordinary yet authentic footage.

01:25Other viral images of a white mushroom cloud emerged after Mount Etna's latest eruption,

01:30and they have been circulating online. However, by conducting a reverse image search,

01:35Euroverify found photos taken just meters away from the same spot, which date back to as early as 2015.

01:43Such images have featured in multiple academic reports, which confirm the photo is from 4th December 2015,

01:50and therefore has nothing to do with the latest eruption. For more fact-checks and debunking,

01:56head to our website, euronews.com.

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