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.
As his death sent shockwaves among fans and the music industry, a disturbing video purporting to show the moment he fell began widely circulating online.
Except the man in the video is not Payne.
The video clip comes 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 hospitalized with serious injuries.
The spread of the out-of-context video stemmed from one verified account on X who shared it with a caption stating, “we are extremely shocked and heartbroken to hear this news.”
The post has been viewed nearly six million times and garnered 24,000 likes.
X has since limited the post’s visibility and slapped a warning that the content may violate its rules against synthetic and manipulated media, which prohibits sharing “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”
But that did not stop the original poster from doubling down on his fake claims.
“Real brother,” the account replied to someone pointing out the video was not Payne.
“r u a investigator? lol,” the poster wrote back to someone else who noted the physical differences between the man in the video and Payne.
Another account—Bad News Central—had a similar response when confronted about the video’s veracity.
“Cry,” they wrote to a commenter who noted, “it’s an old clip and different place completely.”
The added warning to the post has done little to stop the spread of the false video.
Another post that shared the video drew nearly four million views, though that account later apologized for sharing the wrong video and explained the video’s real origin. Their original post remains up.
Not every post containing the incorrect video has been met with a Community Note either.
“Footage of Liam Payne jumping off his balcony today,” one account that aggregates viral and crazy clips online wrote. The post—which has no correction or note—received 235,000 views.
The video’s circulation outraged fans and others aware of its context.
“The amount of accounts posting fake videos of people jumping out windows claiming it’s Liam Payne is disgusting and vile,” wrote one person. “I can’t say I’m surprised, though.”
“It’s sick and it’s unfortunately how some people make a living after Elon let people monetise their account,” blasted someone else.
“Blue checkmarks will do anything to get engagement,” rebuked another account.
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