A number of posts on TikTok, Instagram and Threads appear to show luxury cars floating through the flooded streets of Dubai in inflatable dinghies.
One post says: “Dubai does flooding differently! Gotta protect the exotic and luxury cars.”
But this isn’t a real video. It was created by VertexCGI, a company specializing in visual effects (VFX) and computer-generated imagery (CGI).
The company, which confirmed to Full Fact in an email that it was behind the video, often posts its creations to TikTok, where posts can reach millions of viewers.
It posted the video of the floating luxury cars, captioned “Dubai luxury anti-flood technologies”, online on 18 April. The clip has already garnered more than seven million views on VertexCGI’s TikTok account, and more than 1.5 million likes on its Instagram.
VertexCGI’s X (formerly Twitter) accounts gives the company’s location as Dubai and its social media channels feature a number of other Dubai-based videos, including a supposed Ramadan car parade through the city and what appears to be a Pepsi drone show.
The company has previously animated another clip featuring a car/boat hybrid posting, this camel-themed Porsche floating in a rooftop pool.
The other clue that the “anti-flood technology” isn’t real is that there have been no other credible reports of it in the media, or other footage of it shared on social media.
On 16 April Dubai received more than double its usual annual rainfall in less than 24 hour period, with around 25cm falling in the worst downpour since records began in 1949. Many pictures shared online show abandoned cars submerged on highways in the city.
This is not the first time we have seen CGI videos go viral online. Last year, hundreds of people shared claims that the Arc de Triomphe in Paris had been covered with a large rainbow installation for Pride, which similarly turned out to have been created by a CGI artist.
Misleading images and videos are some of the most common kinds of misinformation we see online, but they can sometimes be difficult to identify. It’s always worth checking if a video shows what the post says it does before sharing—we have written a guide on how to do so here.
