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  • 2023-01-04 (xsd:date)
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  • Old video shows digital simulation, not 'fireworks to welcome winter season in Japan' (en)
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  • As the world celebrated the New Year with spectacular fireworks, a video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in Thai social media posts that falsely claim it shows one elaborate display to welcome the winter season in Japan. The video in fact shows a digital simulation of a fireworks display that was uploaded to YouTube in 2013. Someone sent me this clip this morning saying that these are fireworks from Japan to welcome the winter season, reads a part of the video's caption shared on Facebook here on January 1, 2023. The fireworks are very different from others. I have to say, it is so beautiful that I had to share it with others, it adds. The one-minute 46-second-long video appears to show fireworks that explode to various shapes against the night sky, in time with the music. It has been viewed more than 900,000 times. Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on January 3, 2023 The same video was shared elsewhere on Facebook here and here alongside the claim it shows fireworks in Japan. These posts circulated as fireworks illuminated celebrations around the globe on New Year's Eve to usher in 2023. Comments on the posts suggest several people believed the video shows an actual fireworks display in Japan. It's so beautiful. Happy New Year , read one comment. Another user said: Fireworks to welcome the winter season in Japan are so beautiful. You can not see that anywhere else in the world. The claim that the video shows fireworks in Japan, however, is false. Simulated fireworks show A reverse image search on Google led to a video uploaded to YouTube here on January 4, 2013. The YouTube video is titled, New Years 2013 - Synchronized Epic Music (Heart of Courage) - FWSim Fireworks Display - HD, and is the same length as the video shared with a false claim on Facebook. FWsim is a fireworks simulator that allows users to create virtual fireworks displays and firework effects. The YouTube video's description reads in part: We all made it, safe and sound, to the year 2013, and I wanted to continue the party by sharing this fireworks display I created & actualized. It adds: The great software used to mastermind a production like this is FWSim. The YouTube channel where this video is posted, called mediabyjj, also has several other fireworks videos here that include FWSim in their titles. Below are screenshot comparisons of scenes from the video shared in the false posts (left) and their corresponding frames from the YouTube video (right): Screenshot comparisons AFP has debunked Korean-language posts in 2021 that used the same video and claimed it showed a fireworks display in Seoul. Lukas Trötzmüller, the founder of FWsim, told AFP at the time that the video was created using the fireworks simulation tool. This can be confirmed by looking at the background - it is one of the 3D backgrounds included with the program, he said in an email on July 6, 2021. AFP has also previously debunked posts that misrepresented a fireworks display created using FWsim as genuine footage of Japanese officials setting off fireworks originally intended for the postponed Tokyo Olympics. (en)
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