When Thailand was hit by devastating floods in August 2024, old photos circulated in Facebook posts misleadingly linking them to the disaster. While one of the photos actually showed buildings submerged after a dike collapsed in Thailand’s Sukhothai province, other images in the posts were taken in 2011 and 2023.
“There were floods in Myanmar and now in Thailand,” said a Myanmar resident Facebook post who shared the photos on August 28, 2024.
“28.8.2024 The dam burst in Sukhothai, Thailand caused severe flooding and a red warning has been issued. Use caution.”
The post, shared on a Facebook page with 35,000 followers, shows three photos of cities under water.
The photos, shared in a similar Facebook post here And herespread when deadly floods hit large parts of Thailand in August.
At least 24 people were killed flash floods after heavy monsoon rains, the kingdom’s Ministry of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) said (archived link).
In another incident, thousands of homes were flooded in the central province of Sukhothai after an embankment collapsed on August 26. desk said (archived link).
A spokesperson for the Disaster Response Association of Thailand (DRAT) confirmed that one of the photos shared on Facebook showed flooding after the embankment collapsed.
The photo was placed on DRAT’s Facebook page, which said the photo was taken in Sukhothai on August 26 (archived link).
However, the other two photos shared in fake Facebook posts are old.
A reverse search on Google yielded the first photo in a Bangkok Post October 10, 2011 article about flooding in Thailand’s Nakhon Sawan province (archived link).
The photo was taken by Bangkok Post journalist Chinawat Singha.
Thai authorities have declared a five-day emergency holiday to urge residents in flood-prone areas to avoid a disaster. huge flood killing about 360 people and flooding the Thai capital’s second airport, AFP reported at the time (archived link).
Singha’s photo appeared in several local news reports about the floods, including Radio Free Asia And MGR-online (archived here And here).
Below is a screenshot of a comparison between the photo in a misleading Facebook post (left) and in the Bangkok Post report (right):
The second photo was published in a report by MGR Online on October 4, 2023 about flooding in Sukhothai region (archived link).
The headline in Thai read: “Sukhothai asks PM Srettha for urgent flood control measures to prevent repeated riverbank collapses.”
Below is a screenshot of a comparison between the photo in a misleading Facebook post (left) and in the MGR Online report (right):
MGR Online confirmed to AFP on September 16 that the photo was taken by their photographer who was documenting the floods.
