Viral video doesn’t show Liam Payne falling to his death

The clip shows a man escaping a fire in Mexico City.

Liam Payne, a singer-songwriter and former member of the boy band One Direction, died on Wednesday after falling from the third floor of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Payne was 31.

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As his death sent shockwaves through fans and the music industry, a disturbing video purportedly showing the moment of his fall spread online.

Except the man in the video isn’t Payne.

The video clip is from an incident in 2023 when a man jumped from the third floor of an apartment building in Mexico City to escape a fire. According to reports at the time, the man survived the fall and was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The distribution of the video taken out of context is attributed to a verified account

The post was viewed almost six million times and received 24,000 likes.

X has since limited the post’s visibility and posted a warning that the content may violate its synthetic and manipulated media rules, which prohibit the sharing of “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that deceive or confuse people and cause harm.” “can” prohibit. ”

However, that didn’t stop the original poster from reiterating his false claims.

“Real bro,” the account replied to someone, pointing out that the video was not about Payne.

“Rua Investigator? lol,” the poster wrote to someone else who noticed the physical differences between the man in the video and Payne.

Another account – Bad News Central – had a similar reaction when confronted about the authenticity of the video.

“Wine,” they wrote to one commenter, who noted, “it’s an old clip and a completely different place.”

The warning added to the post did little to stop the false video from spreading.

Another post sharing the video received nearly four million views, although that account later apologized for sharing the wrong video and explained the video’s true origin. Your original post remains.

Also, not every post that contained the incorrect video was given a community notice.

“Footage of Liam Payne jumping off his balcony today,” wrote one account that collects viral and crazy clips online. The post – which contains no correction or comment – ​​received 235,000 views.

The video’s distribution outraged fans and others aware of the context.

“The amount of accounts posting fake videos of people jumping out of windows and claiming it’s Liam Payne is vile and disgusting,” one person wrote. “I can’t say I’m surprised, though.”

“It’s sick and unfortunately it’s the way some people make a living after Elon allowed people to monetize their account,” criticized another.

“Blue ticks do whatever it takes to get engagement,” chided another account.

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