If you filed a claim in Facebook’s $725 million privacy settlement, you could get a payment within weeks, according to the settlement’s administrator.
Millions of consumers who used Facebook over a 15-year period were eligible to file a claim back in 2023, with the settlement stemming from multiple lawsuits filed against the social media platform by users who claimed the company improperly shared their information with third-party sources such as advertisers and data brokers.
The litigation was sparked by Facebook’s privacy scandal in 2018 with Cambridge Analytica, which scraped user data from the site as part of an effort to profile voters. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has denied any liability or wrongdoing under the settlement.
Here’s what to know about the payments.
How do I know if I’m getting a payment?
People who have been approved for a payment will receive an email from “Facebook User Privacy Settlement Administrator.” The email address is donotreply@facebookuserprivacysettlement.com.
The subject of the email is: Facebook User Privacy Settlement – Settlement and Distribution Status Update. The emails state that your claim has been approved, and includes your claim ID number.
When will the payment be sent?
The claim administrator says the company started sending out the payments in September, and that they will continue to be issued over the next the 10 weeks.
“You will receive an additional email notice approximately 3-4 days before your settlement payment is issued. Please continue to check your email during this time period,” read an email sent to an approved claimant on Sept. 9.
How much will I get?
A Sept. 5 court filing discloses that the average payment amount is approximately $29.43, with the maximum payout rising to $38.36.
Facebook users are receiving a portion of the $725 million after administrative costs and lawyers’ fees are paid out.
The payments are based on how many people filed claims, as well as how long each claimant was using Facebook during the 15-year period covered by the settlement.
Each claimant receives one “allocation point” for each month they had an “activated” Facebook account between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022. The settlement administrator adds up all the points assigned to all eligible claimants and then divides the net settlement amount by that number.
Because the payments are based on the number of points assigned to each claimant, people who were on Facebook for shorter periods of time are likely to receive a lower settlement amount. The maximum payment of $38.36 would be given to people who were on Facebook for the entire 15-year period covered by the settlement, the Sept. 5 document notes.
Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
Another TikTok video Degeling shared with WIRED showed a slow-motion, close-up angle of the bullet hitting Kirk’s neck. The tone of the video was conspiratorial: The user who uploaded it added spooky music and a digitally narrated voice, asking, “What is the black thing on his shirt and why did it move like this before he got shot?” As of Thursday morning, the video was still online. It had been up for eight hours and had more than 900 comments (with many saying the “black thing” was a microphone).
As of Thursday morning, on Instagram, a search for “Charlie Kirk shot” surfaced a close-up video of the incident as the first result. The video autoplays as a thumbnail, without warning. At the time of writing, the video had 15.3 million views.
Not only are the Kirk shooting videos spreading rapidly, but some are in clear violation of the platforms’ social media policies. For example, TikTok’s terms of use state that the company does not allow “gory, gruesome, disturbing, or extremely violent content.”
On other platforms, the Kirk video falls into a gray area. Meta’s overarching policy is to age-restrict certain content, require warning labels, and remove some graphic depictions of violence.
A spokesperson for Meta said that, per the company’s Violent and Graphic Content policies, it’s applying a “Mark as Sensitive” warning label to footage of the Kirk shooting, and are age-gating it to users 18 and older. The spokesperson also said that the company has 15,000 people reviewing content for Meta—though it did not say whether these are employees or contractors—and that it does not allow videos that glorify, represent, or support the incident or perpetrator.
Meta also states in its online Transparency Center that it does not allow content of “terrorist attacks, hate events, multiple-victim violence or attempted multiple-victim violence, serial murders, or hate crimes perpetrator-generated content relating to such attacks; or third-party imagery depicting the moment of such attacks on visible victims.” Still, the widely circulated footage of Kirk being shot, for now, is allowable. It will get a warning label and be age-gated, but not removed from Meta platforms unless determined to be in clear violation of the “glorified content” policy.
X tells users that they “may share graphic media if it is properly labeled, not prominently displayed and is not excessively gory or depicting sexual violence.” The platform notes that content that is “explicitly threatening, inciting, glorifying, or expressing desire for violence” is not allowed.
Mahadevan, from the Poynter Institute, says that he saw the Kirk shooting video without his consent multiple times on X on Wednesday, likening it to a version of “4Chan turned into a mainstream social media platform.” (He also says he opened up Facebook on Thursday morning and immediately saw a video of Kirk being shot.)
X did not reply to requests for comment or questions about whether the Kirk video was considered “excessively gory” by X’s standards.
But X appears to have another content moderation problem: A few hours after Kirk was pronounced dead, the AI chatbot Grok, which runs on X, insisted that Kirk was “fine and active as ever.” X did not reply to further questions from WIRED about Grok’s misinformation about the Kirk shooting.
TikTok did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. Bluesky has said it’s suspending accounts that encourage violence and taking down close-up videos of the event.
For now, the videos of Charlie Kirk’s shooting continue to spread online.
“This is all psychologically damaging to our society in ways we don’t understand yet,” Mahadevan said. “We’re seeing posts on X of people saying, ‘Congratulations, you’ve radicalized me.’ And part of that is because they’re seeing the video of Kirk being killed. They’re not just reading about it. They’re actually seeing it.”
There are times when you may want to prevent videos and GIFs from automatically playing in your social media feeds. This could be because you’re trying to conserve cellular data, limit the addictiveness of these apps, or maintain better control over your viewing experience, as when a video is going viral that you don’t wish to see. Whatever the reason might be, here are the steps to turn off autoplaying videos and GIFs on popular social media platforms.
Facebook
To turn off autoplay on Facebook, navigate to your profile picture icon, which appears in the top right corner of the desktop version or in the bottom navigation bar of the mobile app. Then, scroll down to “Settings & Privacy,” then select “Preferences,” where you’ll find a menu option for “Media.” Within that menu, there is an option to toggle video playback in your Feed and in Stories. Select the “Never” option.
The quick path: Settings > Preferences > Media > Video Playback > Never.
Instagram
On the Instagram app, tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner. Once you’re on your profile page, tap the menu icon in the upper right corner of your screen (it’s the icon with three horizontal lines). Then, scroll to “Settings and activity,” then navigate to “Your app and media,” where you’ll find “Media quality.” From there, you can toggle on the option to “Use less cellular data.”
This isn’t as foolproof as a “don’t autoplay content” setting, but it will at least slow things down if you’re off Wi-Fi. Instagram also won’t autoplay sounds unless you click on a post with sound first.
The quick path: Profile > Settings and activity > Your app and media > Media quality > Use less cellular data.
X (Twitter)
On X, navigate to your profile picture in the top left to access the sidebar (on desktop, the sidebar is already visible). Then, select “Settings and privacy” — this will be in smaller font at the bottom of the menu on the app, and on mobile, you have to tap the three dots at the end of the list to bring up more options, which includes “Settings and privacy.” Next, scroll down to “Accessibility, display, and languages,” which will open another menu with a “Data usage” option, where you can turn off “Video autoplay.”
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You can be extra thorough by navigating back to “Settings and privacy” and selecting “Display and sound.” There, you can toggle off “Media previews.”
The quick path: Settings and privacy > Accessibility, display, and languages > Data usage > Video autoplay, and Settings and privacy > Display and sound > Media previews.
Bluesky
Access Bluesky’s menu by tapping the three-line icon in the upper left corner of the mobile app, then choose “Settings” at the bottom of the list. On desktop, this menu is accessible via the sidebar. Select “Content and media,” which will display options that include “Autoplay videos and GIFs.” Toggle this option off.
The quick path: Settings > Content and media > Autoplay videos and GIFs.
Threads
Unfortunately, Meta’s two-year-old microblogging platform does not yet offer a way to turn off autoplay. Hopefully, that’s on the product roadmap.
Nepal has made a dramatic U-turn, reversing a social media ban imposed last week after the decision sparked nationwide “Gen Z” protests that reportedly left at least 19 people dead.
The ban, which blocked access to 26 platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X, was imposed following an August 25 directive requiring foreign social media companies to register their operations in Nepal and appoint a local contact within seven days. When most platforms failed to comply by the deadline, the government cut access last week.
Late on Monday, Nepal’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung told reporters that the government had revoked the social media ban in response to the public outrage.
Monday’s reversal came just hours after thousands of people, many of them students in school uniforms, flooded the streets across Nepal, demanding an end to the social media blackout. The youth-led protests escalated into violent clashes with security forces in several areas, resulting in the deaths of at least 19 demonstrators and leaving more than 100 others injured, according to local media reports.
In a statement late Monday, Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said that the protests turned violent due to infiltration by certain elements, but that the government was never opposed to the demands of the new generation.
International organizations, including the United Nations and human rights groups such as Amnesty International, had earlier raised concerns about the ban and the government’s response to the protests.
“We call on the authorities to respect and ensure the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement on Monday.
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Some platforms, such as TikTok and Rakuten Group-owned Viber, were not affected by the ban as the government stated they had already complied with the directive and registered locally.
The social media restrictions are part of a broader government effort to regulate digital platforms. Earlier this year, Nepal’s government faced widespread outrage over its proposed social media bill, which is still pending approval. The legislation includes provisions for imprisonment and fines for posts “deemed against national sovereignty or interest.” The proposal “threatens to severely undermine press freedom and digital expression,” the International Federation of Journalists said.
An Indiana attorney who shares his name with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social media giant keeps shutting down his accounts, and now he’s fighting back.
Mark S. Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy lawyer practicing in Indianapolis for nearly four decades, filed a lawsuit Sept. 2. against Meta after claiming Facebook repeatedly locked him out of his business and personal accounts because of his name.
The suit, filed in Marion Superior Court, accuses Meta of negligence and breach of contract.
Zuckerberg says his accounts have been suspended at least nine times in the past eight years, disrupting client communications and costing him thousands of dollars in lost advertising.
Zuckerberg said Facebook’s parent company, Meta, is in breach of contract because he paid for advertising on his Facebook business account(Mark.S. Zuckerberg/LinkedIn)
“It almost feels like they’re doing it to me on purpose, the number of times they’ve done it,” he told Fox News Digital.
“You would think a company that’s supposed to be cutting edge and so sophisticated would find a way to stop doing this.”
The lawyer insists his identity is genuine and even predates that of Meta CEO Mark Elliot Zuckerberg. Still, he claims Facebook continues to mistake him for an impersonator.
“I have sued Meta because they have turned off my business and personal accounts over nine times,” he said.
“I think they believe I’m impersonating their head honcho, Mark E. Zuckerberg.”
CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with representatives of social media companies at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday Jan. 31, 2024, in Washington, D.C.(Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
According to his lawsuit, Zuckerberg’s business account has been disabled five times, while his personal profile was suspended four times.
One recent suspension, he says, lasted more than four months despite repeated appeals.
Zuckerberg says the repeated mistakes have cost him. He estimates at least $11,000 in wasted advertising funds.
“It’s not fair that they will take my money, but then shut my account down,” he said.
“The first time they shut it down, I was down for at least six months. This time I was down four months and one day which equals lost business.”
On this day in history, Feb. 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg’s The Facebook launched for Harvard students(Taylor Hill/Getty Images/iStock)
The lawsuit seeks restoration and maintenance of his accounts, reimbursement for lost advertising, and attorney’s fees.
Zuckerberg insists he’d rather not be in this fight. But just last weekend, he says Facebook suspended an account tied to his sister’s Tampa homeowners association, again flagging his name as impersonation.
“Since my name is on my sister’s list, or at least they just suspended that account over the weekend, saying that I’m impersonating somebody,” he said.
“If Mark wants to fly here personally and say ‘I’m sorry’ or maybe let me spend a week on his boat, I’d probably take him up on that.”
A Meta spokesperson said “We looked into this quickly after receiving word of the lawsuit and have reinstated Zuckerberg’s account. Here is our statement:
We have reinstated Mark Zuckerberg’s account, after finding it had been disabled in error. We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s continued patience on this issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future.”
Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.
Federal immigration arrests in Colorado surged this summer as the Trump administration charged ahead with its plans to mass-deport undocumented immigrants.
But as arrests have spiked, law enforcement agencies increasingly have detained people without any prior criminal convictions or charges, internal data show.
Between June 11 and July 28, ICE arrested 828 people in Colorado, according to a Denver Post analysis of data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley. That amounted to more than 17 arrests per day, a more than 50% increase from the first five months of the Trump administration, through June 10, a period covered in a previous Post story. The rate from this summer was also more than five times higher than the daily arrest average from the same time period in 2024.
Of those detained over the summer, only a third had prior criminal convictions noted in the records. Another 18% had pending charges, indicating that nearly half had been neither convicted nor charged with a crime and that their only violation was immigration-related.
That, too, is a shift: In the earlier months of President Donald Trump’s second term, two-thirds of the 1,639 people arrested in Colorado had either been convicted of a crime (38%) or charged with one (29%).
“That tracks with what we would have expected (and) what we’ve been hearing from community sources,” said Henry Sandman, the co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “The data and the reality disproves ICE’s talking points that they’re going after criminals. We’re seeing tactics increase. They’re trying to increase arrest numbers as high as possible, whatever the reason may be for detaining folks.”
Steve Kotecki, a spokesman for Denver’s ICE field office, did not respond to a request for comment late last week.
The data, obtained directly from ICE by the UC Berkeley researchers through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, offers the clearest look at immigration enforcement activities available, as ICE doesn’t post recent information online. For this analysis, The Post examined arrests that occurred in Colorado; arrests that were listed in the dataset as occurring in Wyoming but which took place in a Colorado city; and arrests lacking a listed state but which occurred in a Colorado town or county.
The Post removed several apparent duplicate arrests and a similarly small number of arrests in the region that did not have a specific location listed. The analysis also included a handful of people who appeared to have been arrested twice in the span of several months.
When listing a detainee’s criminal background, the data provides no details about the criminal charges or prior crimes. Illegally entering the country is typically treated as a civil matter upon first offense, but a subsequent entry is a felony criminal offense.
More info about July operation
The newly released data includes the same nine-day period in July during which ICE has said it arrested 243 immigrants without proper legal status “who are currently charged with or have been convicted of criminal offenses after illegally entering the United States.” The arrests, the agency said, all occurred in metro Denver.
But the data published by the UC-Berkeley researchers does not fully match ICE’s public representations.
During the same time frame, the agency arrested 232 people, according to the data. Most of those arrested during that time had never been convicted or charged with a crime, at least according to what’s in the records. Sixty-six people had a previous criminal conviction, and 34 more had pending charges.
Kotecki did not respond to questions about the July operation.
The Post previously reported that ICE falsely claimed that it had arrested a convicted murderer in Denver as part of the July operation. The man had actually been arrested at a state prison facility shortly after his scheduled release, state prison officials said last month.
While ICE claimed the man had found “sanctuary” in the capital city — a shot taken at Denver’s immigration ordinances — The Post found that state prison officials had coordinated his transfer directly to ICE. He was then deported to Mexico, and information matching his description is reflected in the UC Berkeley data.
It’s unclear if all of ICE’s arrests are fully reflected in the data, making it difficult to verify ICE’s claims. The researchers’ data is imperfect, experts have told The Post. The records likely represent the merging of separate datasets before they were provided by the government, increasing the likelihood of mistakes or missing data.
Some arrests in Colorado were listed as occurring in other states or had no state listed at all. Other arrests were duplicated entirely, and researchers have cautioned that ICE’s data at times has had inaccurate or missing information.
The anonymized nature of the data, which lacks arrestees’ names but lists some biographical information, also can make it difficult to verify. When ICE announced the results of the July operation, it named eight of the people it had arrested. Court records and the UC Berkeley data appear to match up with as many as seven of them.
The eighth, Blanca Ochoa Tello, was arrested on July 14 by ICE’s investigative branch in a drug-trafficking investigation, court filings show. But it’s unclear if she appears in the ICE data, as she was arrested in La Plata County and no woman arrested in that county was listed in the data.
To verify ICE’s July operation claims, The Post examined arrest data in Colorado and Wyoming, which jointly form the Denver area of operations for the agency. The Post also searched for arrests in every other state to identify any arrests that may have occurred in a Colorado area but were errantly listed under other states.
Federal agents detain a man as he exits a court hearing in immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on July 30, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Nationally, immigration authorities had their most arrest-heavy months this summer, according to data published by researchers at Syracuse University. Immigration officials arrested more than 36,700 people in June, its highest single-month total since June 2019, during Trump’s first term. More than 31,200 were arrested across the country in July.
The Trump administration has also set out to increase its detention capacity to accommodate the mass-deportation plans.
As of late July, ICE planned to triple its detention capacity in Colorado, according to documents obtained last month by the Washington Post. That plan includes opening as many as three new facilities and the expansion of Colorado’s sole existing facility in Aurora.
DHS officers watch from the parking lot as protesters gather at the entrance to the ICE Colorado Field Office on Aug. 30, 2025, in Centennial. (Photo By Kathryn Scott/Special to The Denver Post)
Over the course of this year, ICE arrested people in Colorado who were originally from more than 60 countries, according to the data. That included 10 Iranians arrested in late June or early July. Six of those people were arrested on June 22, the day after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. Three more were arrested over the next 48 hours.
The vast majority of the undocumented immigrants who were arrested and deported were returned to their home countries, though roughly 50 were sent somewhere else, the data show. Nine Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, when alleged gang members were dispatched to a notorious prison there.
ProPublica identified roughly a dozen Coloradans who were sent to that prison. It reported that several were arrested in late January, which matches information listed in the ICE data published by UC Berkeley.
Advocates’ fears of continued arrests have escalated as ICE’s funding has surged. On Aug. 30, several immigration advocates picketed outside an ICE field office in Centennial after a number of immigrants received abrupt notices to check in at the facility.
Four people were detained, said Jordan Garcia, the program director for the American Friends Service Committee’s immigrant-rights program in Colorado.
Among them, he said, was an older Cuban man with dementia. Garcia and other advocates spoke with the man and his son before they entered the facility. The son later came out, Garcia said, and said that his father had been detained.
Thousands of young Nepalis have poured onto the streets of Kathmandu after the government imposed a sweeping ban on 26 major social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, X and WhatsApp. What began as an outcry over digital restrictions has escalated into the largest youth-led uprising the country has seen in years, fueled by broader frustrations over corruption and political dysfunction.
Protesters, many in their teens and 20s, rallied outside Parliament chanting slogans such as “Shut down corruption, not social media.” Demonstrators attempted to storm barricades near Singha Durbar, the government headquarters, prompting police to respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons. Authorities later imposed a curfew across parts of the capital.
Casualty figures remain disputed. Local media have reported between two and eight deaths, while hospitals confirmed more than 80 people injured in clashes, including journalists caught in the crossfire.
The protests were triggered last week when Nepal’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology ordered platforms to suspend operations unless they formally registered under new regulations. Officials argued the ban was necessary to curb disinformation and protect national security. Critics, however, say the move is a thinly veiled attempt to stifle dissent and control online spaces heavily used by Gen Z.
Opposition parties have voiced support for the demonstrators, warning the government that the ban risks deepening instability. International human rights groups have also raised concerns about freedom of expression and access to information.
Whether the restrictions will hold remains unclear. Many Nepalis have already turned to VPNs to bypass the blocks, while organizers vow to continue street protests until the ban is lifted. For now, Kathmandu remains under tight security, with riot police stationed around major intersections and the city bracing for further unrest.
Like in other parts of South Asia, censorship is not new in Nepal. Earlier this year, Nepali auteur Deepak Rauniyar’s Venice-bowing “Pooja, Sir: Rajagunj” released in the country after a contentious battle with government censors that left the film with significant alterations.
The scenes in Nepal echo mass youth protests in neighboring Bangladesh last year, where students and young professionals mobilized against corruption, unemployment and government crackdowns. That movement, which paralyzed Dhaka for weeks, ultimately forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign after more than 15 years in power, reshaping the country’s political landscape and underscoring the rising influence of South Asia’s younger generations.
A shelter-in-place order in Champlin, Minnesota, is expected to be lifted Friday night after a reported stabbing prompted it, city officials said.
Officers responded to the incident on the 7100 block of 120th Avenue at 5:54 p.m. They requested the shelter-in-place order for anyone who lived within a 1-mile radius of Andrews Park “out of an abundance of caution” while they searched for the suspect, the city said in a Facebook post.
According to the city, the suspect and the victims know each other, though officials haven’t said whether anyone was hurt.
“As of 7:20 p.m., investigators believe the suspect has left the City of Champlin,” the Facebook post said.
The city said the shelter-in-place order would “be rescinded,” and that the investigation is ongoing.
Goose’s new gig: Animal sanctuary reveals new setup for infamous Webster water monitor
The water monitor lizard that went viral after escaping its home in Webster is getting a new gig.
According to the Rainforest Reptile Shows Facebook page, Goose is now living happily at the reptile sanctuary in Beverly.
“Once Goose has cleared quarantine, we’ll be hosting a special event in Webster, MA for the communities of Webster, Douglas, and the surrounding towns to meet him,“ the sanctuary wrote on Facebook.
Goose has had quite the journey since being reported missing nearly two months ago.
Goose gained quite a reputation around town and throughout parts of Massachusetts, even garnering the attention of a self-proclaimed reptile expert to make his way to Webster to locate the “little” guy.
“I do not believe this will ever be found,” said reptile expert Jean-Paul LaPierre. “I wouldn’t advise any to go out like I just did and walk around. You’re not going to find it.”
It sure seemed that way for a bit, despite multiple sightings of the lizard in Connecticut and in Douglas.
Goose was eventually captured by the Massachusetts Environmental Police, Webster Police Department, and Douglas PD in August.
Goose will soon have a new habitat at the RRS Oasis Animal Sanctuary, where people will be able to watch what he’s doing on a live stream.
A bankruptcy attorney in Indianapolis is suing Meta, Facebook’s parent company, over repeated account suspensions.Mark S. Zuckerberg claims that having the same name as Facebook’s founder has led to significant business disruptions. Zuckerberg alleges that Meta has accused him of impersonating a celebrity, resulting in the shutdown of his business pages.”I’ve got better things to do than sue Facebook,” he told WTHR-TV. “I’d rather not pick a fight with them, but I don’t know how else to make them stop.”In the past eight years, his business account has been suspended five times, while his personal account has faced four suspensions.Emails from Meta show apologies for the errors, but Zuckerberg insists it takes months to regain access.”The last time they did it, it was over six months before I got my account turned back on,” he said.The bankruptcy attorney estimates that these suspensions have cost him thousands in advertising revenue.”It’s like buying a billboard and then having it covered up. It’s not fair,” he added.The lawsuit seeks to compel Meta to keep his accounts active and cover his attorney fees and lost advertising money.As for the other Mark Zuckerberg, he joked, “If he wants to fly here personally and say ‘I’m sorry,’ I’d probably take him up on that.”Currently, his account is back online, and a Meta spokesperson stated that it had been disabled in error, expressing appreciation for his patience.
INDIANAPOLIS —
A bankruptcy attorney in Indianapolis is suing Meta, Facebook’s parent company, over repeated account suspensions.
Mark S. Zuckerberg claims that having the same name as Facebook’s founder has led to significant business disruptions.
Zuckerberg alleges that Meta has accused him of impersonating a celebrity, resulting in the shutdown of his business pages.
“I’ve got better things to do than sue Facebook,” he told WTHR-TV. “I’d rather not pick a fight with them, but I don’t know how else to make them stop.”
In the past eight years, his business account has been suspended five times, while his personal account has faced four suspensions.
Emails from Meta show apologies for the errors, but Zuckerberg insists it takes months to regain access.
“The last time they did it, it was over six months before I got my account turned back on,” he said.
The bankruptcy attorney estimates that these suspensions have cost him thousands in advertising revenue.
“It’s like buying a billboard and then having it covered up. It’s not fair,” he added.
The lawsuit seeks to compel Meta to keep his accounts active and cover his attorney fees and lost advertising money.
As for the other Mark Zuckerberg, he joked, “If he wants to fly here personally and say ‘I’m sorry,’ I’d probably take him up on that.”
Currently, his account is back online, and a Meta spokesperson stated that it had been disabled in error, expressing appreciation for his patience.
Meta currently has lots of priorities Mark Zuckerberg likely never would have imagined back in the early days of Facebook. The company has pivoted from social networking to the metaverse and, most recently, to AI. But somehow, one of its earliest — and most useless — features has not only survived but is apparently getting a revamp. I’m talking, of course, about the poke, which Meta is once again trying to revive.
The company is making the storied feature easier to find by adding pokes back to user profiles in the Facebook app, according to a post it shared on Instagram. And you can track all poking-related activity between you and your friends at facebook.com/pokes. It even looks like there’s a Snapchat-streak like aspect where different emojis appear based on how many pokes have been exchanged.
Just in case you weren’t on Facebook two decades ago, “poking” was something of a novelty in the early days of the social network. At the time, there weren’t that many features for interacting with your friends. You could leave comments on their profile and … you could “poke.” The feature never really did anything, but depending on who it came from it was considered something between creepy or flirty. As Meta notes in its Instagram post, poking never really went away, but it was de-emphasized over the years and has been largely forgotten by users.
But the company has for some reason been trying to get poking to make a comeback for a while now. Meta said last year the feature was “having a moment” and that there had been a 13x spike in pokes after the company began surfacing the feature in the Facebook search bar. Now, it seems Meta is trying to build even more momentum for it, presumably for the current generation of younger Facebook users.
Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year he wants to bring back more “OG” Facebook features like… being able to find content posted by your actual friends. And it’s hard to get more “OG Facebook” than poking. Meta has also been on a years-long mission to win over “young adults,” so it might see the jokey feature as a way to appeal to a generation used to taking their Snap streak extremely seriously.
The classic feature from Facebook’s early days lets users get a friend’s attention with a virtual nudge of sorts. While the poke fell out of use ages ago, the company has more recently seen an uptick in its use among younger users, which has now prompted it to make the poke a more central part of the Facebook experience.
Now users are able to poke their friends from a new, dedicated button directly on their Facebook profile, which will alert the poke’s recipient through their notifications. In addition, Facebook users can see who poked them and find friends to poke at facebook.com/pokes. On this page, users will be able to track their “poke count” with friends, which grows every time they poke each other. They can also dismiss pokes if they don’t want to reciprocate.
The poke-tracking feature is largely designed to appeal to younger users who have grown up with gamification elements built into their social apps, like Snapchat and TikTok Streaks. These features ostensibly help friends keep track of those they message most, but streaks have come under regulatory scrutiny and have even led to lawsuits because of their addictive nature, as they keep kids hooked on the apps.
By highlighting poke counts and making the poke more prominent on Facebook, Meta wants to create a similar engagement mechanism. As users increase their poke counts with a friend, different icons will appear next to the friend’s name, like a fire emoji or “100,” among others.
This isn’t the first time in recent months that Facebook has tried to revive the poke. In March 2024, the company said it had made it easier for users to find the poking page via search and would make it easier to poke a friend after searching for them. These small changes led to a 13x spike in poking in the month after the changes, Meta said at the time.
As for why you’d want to poke someone, that’s up to users to decide. Facebook never explained the purpose of the poke, leaving it open to interpretation. A poke could be a way to catch someone’s attention, flirt, or just annoy them, depending on the user’s intent.
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Poke counts may never become as popular as streaks, but adding them is clearly a signal that Meta is looking to boost Facebook engagement.
According to research from Jon Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation,” which focused on social media’s potential harm to children’s brain development, Snap had known about streaks’ habit-forming nature for years. An article he co-published with a senior research scientist at NYU Stern, Zach Rausch, included quotes from internal documents that show Snap employees discussing how popular streaks were and how effective they were at driving engagement.
Though Facebook today remains a cash cow for Meta’s business, fueling its longer-term bets in areas like AI and metaverse projects, it has long been criticized for failing to appeal to younger users — a demographic that’s been declining, particularly in the U.S. The company has tried to recapture the youth market with various initiatives, including the short-lived, college-only feature Facebook Campus, shuttered in 2022, and more recently, a Gen Z-focused redesign.
Unrelated photos appearing to show people being arrested and escorted by police are circulating in Malaysia with false claims they show Dutch police detaining members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The photos previously circulated in reports and posts that made no mention of the individuals being Israeli soldiers, and a spokesperson for the Dutch police told AFP that none of the pictured officers are wearing the force’s official uniform.
“Dutch police arrested Israeli Major General Shaitan Shaul, commander of the armoured corps, this morning on charges of war crimes in Rafah,” reads the Malay-language caption of a Facebook image shared on August 14, 2025.
The photo shows a man in handcuffs being escorted by law enforcement officers.
The caption goes on to claim he was arrested while on holiday at The Hague, adding that Dutch authorities are on a campaign to arrest IDF soldiers after the “International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a life sentence to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”.
Screenshot of the false post taken on August 24, 2025 with a red X added by AFP
Screenshots of the false Facebook post captured on September 1, 2025, with red Xs added by AFP
Reverse image searches, however, show the pictured individuals are not linked to the Israeli military.
The ICJ has also not issued any ruling on Netanyahu — though the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for him and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel’s war in Gaza, including using starvation as a method of warfare (archived link).
The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,459 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.
Unrelated photos
The first falsely shared photo was previously used in news reports by British newspapers The Telegraph and The Sun, which identified the man as Johnny Morissey, a UK national who was arrested in Spain in September 2022 for his role as a cartel enforcer (archived here and here).
Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the image from The Telegraph’s report in September 2022 (right)
The second photo, showing a policewoman handcuffing a woman who is lying face down, was previously shared on June 1, 2025 by the user AshnaGopal on DeviantArt, a platform for digital artists (archived link).
The owner of the account told AFP the photo was taken in the United Kingdom. The person who took the photo had not posted it elsewhere but gave the DeviantArt user permission to share it on their account, they said.
“This is actually a police training exercise, and the woman on the bottom is actually a student volunteer. You can see they are actually in a gym with a foam floor,” they said on August 25.
Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the image posted on DeviantArt (right)
The photo of a woman flanked by two men, one in a police uniform, was previously published by The Daily Mail in an August 2016 article titled, “Collapsed in the street, urinating in doorways and being carted off by police: It’s just another Bank Holiday night on the Toon for Newcastle revellers” (archived link).
The photo’s caption also makes no reference to the woman being an Israeli soldier.
Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the image published by The Daily Mail in 2016 (right)
The photo of a woman covering her face while a policewoman appears to escort her, was used in a September 2019 article by German daily Rheinische Post, which identified the woman as an Instagram beauty influencer who was charged with illegally injecting fillers into people’s lips and noses (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the image published by Rheinische Post in 2019
A spokesperson for the Dutch national police, Lilian Scholten, told AFP that “no officers wearing a Dutch uniform can be seen” in the falsely shared photos.
Policemen in the Netherlands traditionally wear dark navy uniforms with bright yellow horizontal stripes across the chest and shoulders and are also equipped with utility belts and body cameras or other gear (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the false posts (left) and a photo showing Dutch police in their official uniform (right)
Belgian authorities in Antwerp did briefly hold and question two Israeli citizens attending the Tomorrowland music festival in July 2025 after they were accused of war crimes by pro-Palestinian groups (archived link). Their names were not made public.
AFP has repeatedly debunked false and misleading claims about the war in Gaza.
A pilot suffered “significant injuries” after an aircraft crashed and caught fire Aug. 28 in a field in Unadilla Township, according to the municipality’s police department.
The small, single-engine aircraft crashed and caught fire around 3:51 p.m. at the southern end of Richmond Field, the Unadilla Township Police Department wrote on Facebook. The township is located between Stockbridge and Pinckney.
Livingston County Central Dispatch received a crash detection notification from an iPhone, followed by calls from nearby residents. First responders found the pilot outside the aircraft, according to police.
The pilot, a 22-year-old man from Ohio, was flying from Charlevoix to Toledo, according to police. He was taken by ambulance to the University of Michigan Hospital.
The cause of the crash is unknown. Unadilla Township police, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.
Anyone who may have witnessed or heard the crash is asked to call 734-498-2325.
Two people are in the hospital after they were injured in a plane crash Friday morning in New Smyrna Beach, the city’s fire department said on Facebook. It happened around 10:30 a.m. NSB fire and police units responded to the area of South Street and Clarendon Avenue, just outside of the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport, regarding an airplane crash. Two people were on board at the time of the crash, and both were transported to Halifax Hospital. Area roads are closed. >> This is a developing story and will be updated
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. —
Two people are in the hospital after they were injured in a plane crash Friday morning in New Smyrna Beach, the city’s fire department said on Facebook.
It happened around 10:30 a.m.
NSB fire and police units responded to the area of South Street and Clarendon Avenue, just outside of the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport, regarding an airplane crash.
Two people were on board at the time of the crash, and both were transported to Halifax Hospital.
Area roads are closed.
>> This is a developing story and will be updated
This content is imported from Facebook.
You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
As eastern India’s Bihar gears up for elections later this year, politicians across party lines have begun canvassing in the state, but footage of a massive crowd does not show a rally in support of opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi as claimed in social media posts. The video was filmed weeks earlier at a bullock cart race in Maharashtra state.
“Watch the charisma of Rahul Gandhi. If the media has courage, let them show it on TV,” reads a Hindi-language Facebook post shared on August 19, 2025.
The post also shares a 25-second clip showing a large crowd gathered in an open ground with a text overlay that reads, “Rahul Gandhi has earned this. The public has come to see Rahul Gandhi.”
Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on August 20, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The false claim surfaced after Gandhi launched a month-long “voter rights” rally in the key battleground state of Bihar on August 17 (archived link).
His Congress party will challenge the state’s ruling coalition formed by the Janata Dal United party and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in an election expected later this year (archived here).
The party also alleged the Election Commission of India (ECI) had embarked on a “mass disenfranchisement” exercise after it gave voters in the state just weeks to prove their citizenship, requiring documents that few possess in a registration revamp.
The ECI has called Gandhi’s accusation “false and misleading”.
Its Marathi-language caption reads, “Pedgaon Hind Kesari ground 2025. Heartbeat of Millions — Mathur 1001”, with a text overlay reading, “look how the white Mathur (bull) walks”.
Mathur 1001 is a cross-bred bull famous in the region for winning several races (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the clip shared in the false posts (L) and the Instagram video
Subsequent keyword searches found multiple videos of the race on YouTube and Instagram shared in June 2025 (archived here and here).
Images of the venue on Google Maps also match the visuals in the false clip (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and image on Google Maps, with matching features highlighted by AFP
Tropical Storm Fernand is now rumbling through the Atlantic
>> JUST GETTING IN THE LATEST INFORMATION FROM THE 05:00AM ADVISORY ON TROPICAL STORM FAIR. NOT NOW. THIS IS REALLY JUST MAINTAINING STRENGTH, BUT IT’S OVER 300 MILES NOW EAST-NORTHEAST OF EVEN BERMUDA. SO THIS IS JUST OVER THE OPEN ATLANTIC AND IT IS MOVING TO THE NORTH-NORTHEAST AT 12 MILES PER HOUR. SO NOT LOOKING ALL TOO IMPRESSIVE. AND WITH THE LATEST SPAGHETTI PLOTS, WE DO HAVE A REALLY GOOD CONSENSUS THAT HIGH PUNCHING THAT THIS CONTINUES TO TRACK NORTHEAST HEADING TOWARD THE FAR NORTHERN SUBTROPICAL ATLANTIC WHERE I DO EXPECT IT TO EVENTUALLY DISSIPATE BY THE END OF THE WEEK. SO THE LATEST FORECAST CONE SHOWING THAT WHAT WE COULD SEE SOME WOBBLES IN INTENSITY, PERHAPS SOME OCCASIONAL STRENGTHENING, NOT FOR LONG. WE DO NOT EXPECT THIS TO REACH HURRICANE STATUS OF HER. AND WE EXPECT THIS TO EVENTUALLY ON WEDNESDAY TRANSITION TO A POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE MEETING. IT WILL HAVE LOST ALL OF ITS TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND IT POSES NO THREAT TO THE U.S.. THAT IS, OF COURSE NOT. THE ONLY THING I’M MONITORING THIS MORNING ON TOP OF TROPICAL STORM FAIR NON-LOCAL INTO THE SOUTH OVER THE WINDWARD ISLANDS THIS MORNING. A DISTURBANCE WITH LOW ODDS FOR DEVELOPMENT. WE’RE TALKING HAD DECREASED OVER THE WEEKEND TO JUST 10%. SO OVER THE NEXT 2 DAYS, EVEN THE NEXT WEEK, LOW ODDS TO SEE SOME SORT OF TROPICAL DEVELOPMENT. HOWEVER, REGARDLESS OF DEVELOPMENT, THIS IS STILL PRODUCING DISORGANIZED SHOWERS AND STORMS. EVEN THOUGH THE COVERAGE IS DECREASING A BIT THIS MORNING AND FOR THE WINDWARD ISLANDS, AT LEAST SOME GUSTY WINDS AND HEAVY RAIN POSSIBLE THROUGHOUT E DAY TODAY, EVEN INTO TOMORROW AS THIS TROPICAL WAVE MOVES WEST. SO AS OF NOW, NOT SEEING HIGH LIKELIHOOD THAT THIS EVER ACTUALLY DEVELOPS. BUT WE’RE GOING TO BE STAYING ON TOP OF IT, OF COURSE, AT THIS POINT IN HURRICANE SEASON. WE’RE ALSO 3RD THROUGH OUR STORM NAMES LIST. THE NEXT NAME ON THE LIST. GABRIEL AND THEN UMBERTO. SO WE’RE GONNA BE WATCHING FOR THAT. AND KEEP IN MIND, WE’RE JUST ABOUT 2 WEEKS OUT FROM THE STATISTICAL PEAK OF HURRICANE SEASON. ALL RIGHT, LIVE RADAR, SWEEPING, CLEAR WATCHING SOME OF THOSE SPOTTY SHOWERS JUST OFF THE COAST OF CHARLOTTE COUNTY. BUT MOST OF US IN GREAT SHAPE AFTER A VERY SOGGY WEEKEND, HOWEVER, WITH EVEN SOME FLOODING CONCERNS FOR PARTS OF LEE COUNTY. SO WHO IS FAVORED TO SEE THE RAIN AGAIN TODAY? WHILE COASTAL SPOTS, SOME SPOTTY SHOWERS AND STORMS INTO THE MORNING HOURS. AND WE’RE LOOKING AT THAT POSSIBLE HEADING INTO THE AFTERNOON. SCATTERED STORM. SO WE DO NOT EXPECT THE COVERAGE TO BE NEARLY AS HIGH AS WHAT WE SAW SATURDAY OR SUNDAY. HOWEVER, YOU ARE STILL GOING TO WANT THE UMBRELLA HANDY. WE’RE LOOKING AT A RINSE AND REPEAT PATTERN STILL EVERY SINGLE DAY OVER THE NEXT WEEK. SO NOT SEEING THE RAINY SEASON WEAKENING ANYTIME SOON. IN FACT, THE RAINY SEASON DOESN’T COME TO AN END UNTIL USUALLY THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER. SO WE STILL HAVE QUITE A WAYS TO GO TEMPERATURE NO RELIEF THERE. LOW TO MID 90’S EVERY SINGLE DAY MORNINGS WILL BE IN THE MID TO UPPER 70’S. SO PRETTY SEASONAL. I DON’T EXPECT RECORD HEAT, BUT WE’RE ALSO NOT GETTING IN ON ANY SORT OF COOL DOW
Tropical Storm Fernand pulls away from US
Tropical Storm Fernand is now rumbling through the Atlantic
The Atlantic Basin remains active as Tropical Storm Fernand spins over the open Atlantic and a disturbance near the Windward Islands has a low chance for development.Tropical Storm Fernand At 5 a.m. Monday, Tropical Storm Fernand maintained strength with sustained winds at 50 mph. It’s currently 360 miles east-northeast of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 12 mph.It is forecast to head toward cooler sea surface temperatures and high wind shear, making a transition to post-tropical by Wednesday.Fernand poses no threat to the U.S. and is expected to dissipate by Thursday.Invest 99LNear the Windward Islands, the National Hurricane Center has designated a tropical wave as Invest 99L in the region highlighted in yellow. Chances for development have decreased to only 10% as the system tracks west. Regardless of development, heavy rainfall and gusty winds are the main threats in the Windward Islands over the next two days.As 99L pushes deeper into the Caribbean, there is potential that it could reach an area of more favorable development conditions later this week. Count on the Gulf Coast Storm Team to keep you informed.
FORT MYERS, Fla. —
The Atlantic Basin remains active as Tropical Storm Fernand spins over the open Atlantic and a disturbance near the Windward Islands has a low chance for development.
Tropical Storm Fernand
At 5 a.m. Monday, Tropical Storm Fernand maintained strength with sustained winds at 50 mph. It’s currently 360 miles east-northeast of Bermuda and moving north-northeast at 12 mph.
It is forecast to head toward cooler sea surface temperatures and high wind shear, making a transition to post-tropical by Wednesday.
Fernand poses no threat to the U.S. and is expected to dissipate by Thursday.
Invest 99L
Near the Windward Islands, the National Hurricane Center has designated a tropical wave as Invest 99L in the region highlighted in yellow.
Chances for development have decreased to only 10% as the system tracks west. Regardless of development, heavy rainfall and gusty winds are the main threats in the Windward Islands over the next two days.
As 99L pushes deeper into the Caribbean, there is potential that it could reach an area of more favorable development conditions later this week. Count on the Gulf Coast Storm Team to keep you informed.
Tech bro Mark Zuckerberg’s company has been caught in one of the most disturbing scandals yet. Reuters uncovered an internal Meta document that allowed its AI chatbots to flirt with children and engage in sensual conversations. The revelation sparked outrage, and Meta only reversed course after getting caught.
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Threads app logo on a smartphone screen with the Meta logo above it.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Meta AI policy allowed chatbots to flirt with kids
According to internal “GenAI: Content Risk Standards,” Meta’s legal, policy, and engineering teams signed off on chatbot rules that made it acceptable for bots to describe a child as “a youthful form of art” or engage in romantic roleplay with minors. Even worse, the guidelines gave room for chatbots to demean people by race and spread false medical claims. This was not a bug. These were approved rules until Meta faced questions. Once Reuters started asking, the company quickly scrubbed the offensive sections and claimed it had been a mistake.
We reached out to Meta, and a spokesperson provided this statement to CyberGuy:
“We have clear policies on what kind of responses AI characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors. Separate from the policies, there are hundreds of examples, notes, and annotations that reflect teams grappling with different hypothetical scenarios. The examples and notes in question were and are erroneous and inconsistent with our policies, and have been removed.”
Meta told CyberGuy that their AI policies prohibit content that sexualizes children. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Big Tech puts profit over kids’ safety
Let’s call this what it is. Meta didn’t stop this on its own. It only acted when exposed. That shows Big Tech’s priorities: money, engagement, and keeping kids glued to screens. Safety? Not even on the radar until someone blows the whistle. Meta has repeatedly shown it couldn’t care less about your children’s well-being. It’s about maximizing time online, pulling in younger users, and monetizing every click. This latest scandal proves once again that parents cannot rely on tech companies to protect kids.
Congress pushes Meta to explain disturbing AI rules
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and a bipartisan group in Congress are demanding that Meta come clean. Lawmakers want to know how and why these policies ever got approval. Hawley called on Meta to release all internal documents and explain why chatbots were allowed to simulate flirting with children. Meta insists it has “fixed” the problem, but critics argue these corrections only came after they were exposed. Until real regulations arrive, parents are on their own.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is demanding that Meta release internal documents and explain why chatbots were allowed to simulate flirting with children.(Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
How parents can protect kids from risky AI chatbots
While Congress investigates, families need to take immediate steps to protect their children from the dangers exposed in Meta’s AI scandal.
1) No unsupervised access to AI chatbots
Children should never have free access to AI chatbots, including Meta AI. The internal documents show these systems can cross boundaries that no parent would approve of. Supervision is the first line of defense.
2) Turn on parental controls across all devices
Enable parental controls on phones, tablets, and computers. These tools give you more visibility and limit access to risky apps where inappropriate chatbot conversations could happen.
3) Talk with kids regularly about AI and online dangers
The Meta revelations prove AI can go places parents would never expect. Ongoing conversations with your children about what is safe and what is not online are essential for their protection.
4) Use content filtering tools to block risky apps
Apps like Bark allow parents to block or filter certain programs where AI interactions may slip through. With tech companies failing to self-police, filtering tools give parents more control.
5) Install strong antivirus software on every family device
While antivirus software won’t stop AI flirting, it adds a much-needed layer of security. Hackers and bad actors often target kids through the same devices where chatbots live, so whole-family protection matters. The best way to safeguard from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing you and your family’s private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.
Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at CyberGuy.com/LockUpYourTech
These steps won’t solve the problem entirely, but they give parents more power at a time when Big Tech seems unwilling to put children’s safety first.
If you thought chatbots were harmless fun, think again. Meta’s own documents prove its AI bots were allowed to cross dangerous lines with children. Parents must now take a proactive role in monitoring tech, because Big Tech will not protect your kids until forced.
Kurt’s key takeaways
Meta’s scandal shows once again why blind trust in Silicon Valley is dangerous. AI can be powerful, but without accountability, it becomes a threat. Congress may push for answers, but parents must stay one step ahead to safeguard their children.
Do you think Big Tech companies like Meta should ever be trusted to police themselves when kids’ safety is on the line? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com/Contact
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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.
Relentless rains across northern Pakistan have triggered deadly flooding and landslides, but footage of thick mud crashing onto buildings does not show the recent situation in the South Asian nation. The clip, featured in a compilation with thousands of views, was shot in the Japanese town of Atami in July 2021.
“May Allah protect all of us from natural calamities. Amen,” reads the Urdu-language caption of a Facebook video viewed more than 11,000 times since it was shared on August 16, 2025.
The caption includes hashtags for areas in Pakistan’s mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where torrential monsoon rains have triggered deadly flooding and landslides (archived link).
The video comprises several clips, with the first showing mud and debris crashing down a hillside.
Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on August 18, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The monsoon season brings about three-quarters of South Asia’s annual rainfall, which is vital for agriculture and food security but also causes widespread destruction.
The rains that have battered Pakistan have caused flooding and landslides that have swept away entire villages, leaving many residents trapped in the rubble and hundreds missing.
But the clip used at the beginning of the circulating compilation was not filmed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
AFP reported that torrents of mud crashed through part of the town following days of heavy rain (archived link). The devastating landslide killed 27 people.
The video has been misrepresented several times on social media as showing unrelated disasters.
Other clips in the compilation depict raging floodwaters and buildings being toppled over.
While AFP was unable to verify if they all show the impact of the monsoon rains on northern Pakistan in August 2025, at least one of the clips is several years old.
The video of a muddy torrent furiously gushing across buildings has circulated on Facebook and YouTube since at least August 2022 (archived here and here).
The latter post says it was taken in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district.
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the video posted in 2022 (right)
Monsoon rains in 2022 submerged a third of the country and resulted in approximately 1,700 deaths.
AFP reported at the time that many rivers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had burst their banks, demolishing scores of buildings including a 150-room hotel that crumbled into a raging torrent (archived link).
Officials said that year’s monsoon flooding affected more than 33 million people — one in seven Pakistanis — destroying or badly damaging nearly a million homes.
AFP earlier debunked another false claim about the recent monsoon flooding in Pakistan here.
