As Malta braced for Storm Harry’s gale force winds on Monday January 19, Maltese social media was hit with a wave of storm-related misinformation, with footage of years-old storms resurfacing and shared as new.
In one case, footage of a Gozo Channel ferry attempting to carry passengers between the islands of Malta and Gozo as the storm rages was shared to Facebook and quickly went viral.
The video, showing the ferry rocking perilously on the waves, was shared by several local media houses, including national broadcaster TVM.
Several other media houses, including local online portal Lovin Malta, also shared the video.
The video was first posted by a local resident to their personal Facebook profile, accompanied by the caption “HAPPENING NOW: Gozo Channel Co. Ltd. notifies the public that due to bad weather conditions, there might be cancellation of some trips or suspension of service. Current operations are being operated to Cirkewwa South quay.”
By the afternoon, the footage had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, with many who viewed the video taking to the comments section to describe the footage as “terrifying,” questioning why the ferry was in operation at all. Others expressed their gratitude towards the ferry’s crew members for continuing their work despite the trying weather conditions.
However, the same footage was first uploaded to YouTube almost 15 years ago, claiming to show strong winds during a storm on November 9 2010, with the title “rough sea gozo channel line”.
That YouTube video shows the same Gozo Channel ferry swaying in the sea, with Malta’s rocky coastline just to its side. As it moves closer to the camera, more of Malta’s coast enters the shot, showing waves smashing against Malta’s cliffs.
Just like the video that went viral on Monday, the 2010 YouTube video lasts just under two minutes, with seemingly no edits carried out to the footage before it was reshared this morning. The two videos correspond perfectly, with identical shots appearing at the same timestamps.
The YouTube video has been viewed 96,000 times in the 15 years since it was first uploaded.
