If you go onto TikTok or Instagram, you’ve probably seen a realistic video of France’s most iconic tourist attraction, the Eiffel Tower, ablaze. Fortunately, this timeless attraction still stands tall over the Paris skyline because there was no fire to begin with! It turns out that the image posted was just CGI video, fooling over 4 million people online. As we all know, the Eiffel Tower is one of the most well-known tourist spots in the world, with 6.3 million visitors in 2023 alone. Despite being fake, many people truly believed that the Eiffel Tower was on fire with many people using #prayforparis, making it more trendy. On TikTok alone, if you search the word Eiffel, the first results being “Eiffel Tower burning” or “Eiffel Tower on fire 2024”.
Turns out, the first video was made by a 3D Studio in Armenia. The original video was only 9 seconds long and published on Youtube in July of 2023. Later on in 2024, the video was reuploaded on TikTok and X – formerly known as Twitter. Another deceiving image going around online is the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire connecting to the Eiffel Tower fire, despite being a little over 2 miles away. All of these scenarios are perfect examples of people being fooled by modern technology and artificial intelligence.
Cover photo credits to Yann Caradec from Paris, France on Wikipedia Commons
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