Fact-Check: Does This Image Show Hyderabad’s 1908 Musi River Flood? No, It’s AI

The image is an AI-generated one and doesn't authentically show Hyderabad's 1908 Musi River flood.

An AI-generated image has gone viral with the false claim that it shows real visuals of Hyderabad's Musi River flood from 1908.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

An image showing high levels of floodwater around Hyderabad's Charminar has gone viral on social media.

The claim: The image is being shared with a caption which reads, "#Devastating Musi River Floods 28 September 1908. A rare historical photograph showing the catastrophic floods that submerged parts of Hyderabad, claiming over 15,000 lives and reshaping the city’s future."

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: While Hyderabad saw devastating floods in 1908, this image does not show visuals from that event. This image was made using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

How do we know?: We noticed a few things about the viral image.

• Firstly, the skyline in the background shows mobile network towers.

• Secondly, the signboards in the image are all blurry.

• Lastly, the image carries the watermark of 'Meta AI'.

The image carries multiple odd details.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

We then ran the image through AI-generated content detectors.

• Hive Moderation showed a 99.1 percent confidence that the image was an AI-generated one.

Hive Moderation's tool suspected it was made using AI.

(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)

• Was it AI, too, showed high confidence that it was made using AI.

The tool showed high confidence in its result.

(Source: Was it AI/Screenshot)

• Another tool, AI or Not, also gave the same result, stating that the image was an AI-generated one.

Three tools showed high confidence in the image being an AI-generated one.

(Source: AI or Not/Screenshot)

1908 Musi River floods: On 28 and 29 September in 1908, Hyderabad saw over 98.57 centimeters of rainfall in a short period of 48 hours, The Hindu noted.

• This heavy rain breached 221 of the 788 tanks around the Musi river, inundating its surroundings with water.

• The floods reportedly damaged over 59,000 homes and claimed an estimated 15,000 people, as per Siasat.

Conclusion: An AI-generated image has gone viral with the false claim that it shows the 1908 Musi River flood in Hyderabad.

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