Only one of the four pictures is from the quake in question.
On Feb. 6, 2023, a Twitter user posted four pictures that were purportedly captured in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on the same day. The caption of the tweet read, "Saddest pictures on internet today," and included hashtags for both countries.
As of this writing, The Associated Press (AP) was reporting more than 7,200 deaths. That number was expected to continue to rise.
There were plenty of pictures and videos that show the massive scale of the tragic devastation that resulted from the earthquake. However, only one of the pictures in this tweet was taken after the disaster occurred.
Three of these photos were shot long before the February 2023 earthquake.
First, we recommend our guide on performing reverse image searches that details how to find the origins of a picture. Such tools often help journalists figure out if a photograph is unrelated to a recent natural disaster, such as the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria.
The Dog and the Child's Hand
First, the picture of the dog lying down on rubble next to what might have been a child's hand was available on iStock by Getty Images. The page said the photograph had originally been uploaded on Jan. 4, 2019, more than four years before the early 2023 earthquake.
The Turkish website Teyit.org published in January 2020 that the same picture of the dog had also misleadingly been posted in the past following other tragedies.
The picture was originally captured by Czeck photographer Jaroslav Noska and dated back to at least 2018. We weren't yet able to uncover the true origins of the picture. The Associated Press also couldn't find an original caption for the picture, but concurred that it was old and had nothing to do with the new earthquake.
The Crying Boy
The second picture of the boy bending his knees while crying with his hands over his face also was available on stock photo websites in the years before the 2023 earthquake. It was credited to photographer Hanna Zapylaieva.
One Twitter user corrected someone who posted the picture in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey, which resulted in that person deleting the tweet.
Another user used the old photograph in a new tweet. According to the tweet's stats, it was seen nearly 500,000 times in around 24 hours. The user appeared to have good intentions and tweeted that he sought to fundraise for victims of the new tragedy. Still, the picture was unrelated to the early 2023 earthquake.
This tweet had tens of thousands of engagements.
Both the photos of the dog and the crying boy were also included in a TikTok video that was on track to be viewed 100,000 times.
We weren't yet able to uncover the origins of when and where this picture was taken, but we know for sure that it predated the earthquake, as confirmed by an old page capture on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
The Old Man Holding Bread
As for the picture with the old man crying while holding bread, some sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that it had the appearance of being more than just a few years old.
According to the online Turkish newspaper T24, the picture was taken in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Düzce, Turkey, on Nov. 12, 1999. The photographer was Abdurrahman Antakyalı.
At least 845 people died in the Düzce disaster, according to BBC.com.
The Woman Kneeling and Crying
The final picture in the tweet truly was captured in the aftermath of the early 2023 earthquake.
According to Getty Images, the photograph of the woman kneeling and crying was captioned as follows: "A woman cries as personnel conduct search and rescue operations in Diyarbakir, Turkiye after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hits Turkiye's Kahramanmaras, on Feb. 06, 2023."
This picture was credited to photographer Esra Hacioglu Karakaya.
