After main storms brought about flooding in components of Southeast Asia, a video of individuals battling robust winds surfaced in Thai social media posts falsely claiming it was shot in Cambodia. Nonetheless, the clip actually exhibits the influence of a storm in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi in July 2025.
The six-second clip was shared on TikTok on August 30, 2025 with Thai-language sticker textual content studying: “Storm hit Cambodia. Cambodians mocked Thai folks, now they obtained hit again.”
The video has been considered greater than 507,000 instances and exhibits roadside distributors attempting to cease their stalls from being blown away by robust winds.
Screenshot of the false TikTok submit, taken on September 4, 2025, with a crimson X added by AFP
Different comparable posts surfaced on elsewhere on TikTok, Fb and YouTube in what seems to be a part of a unbroken social media battle between Thai and Cambodian social media customers after the 2 international locations engaged in a five-day border conflict in July (archived hyperlink).
“[Cambodians] all the time cursed Thailand. Now the karma goes again to them. They deserve this,” a person wrote in response to one of many Fb posts.
One other stated: “It is their karma for being ungrateful to Thailand. Do not allow them to to return to Thai hospitals.”
The declare appeared as Hurricane Kajiki swept by way of Thailand after making landfall in Vietnam in late August, inflicting flooding and landslides that killed 5 folks and injured 15 others (archived hyperlink).
One other storm known as Nongfa subsequently flooded Cambodia’s Siem Reap metropolis, native media reported (archived hyperlink).
Nonetheless, the circulating clip exhibits an earlier storm in Hanoi, Vietnam.
A reverse picture search utilizing keyframes from the video led to a TikTok submit on July 20, 2025, with a Vietnamese-language caption studying: “The thunderstorm in Hanoi is horrible” (archived hyperlink).
The circulating false clip, which has been mirrored, corresponds to the primary six seconds of the TikTok video.
Vietnamese media reported a few sudden thunderstorm on July 19 that disrupted visitors in Hanoi and different northern provinces (archived hyperlink). On the identical day, a vacationer boat in Ha Lengthy Bay capsized, killing not less than 35 folks (archived hyperlink).
The video comprises different visible clues indicating it was filmed in Vietnam, together with a turquoise-coloured automobile, a part of the electrical taxi fleet belonging to Vietnamese ride-sharing firm Xanh SM (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot of the viral video, with a component made by AFP to focus on the electrical taxi run by Xanh SM
Store indicators in Vietnamese can be seen within the background, comparable to ones studying “Thit”, Vietnamese for “meat”, and “Chim Canh”, that means decorative birds.
A retailer known as “Store Boy” can be seen in Google Maps Road View imagery of a bit of Pho Nhon Street in Hanoi (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot comparability between the viral video (L) and the Google Maps avenue view imagery, with a component made by AFP to focus on the Store Boy retailer
AFP has beforehand debunked different misinformation associated to the Cambodia-Thailand battle.
