Fake supermoon Facebook live video gets 16 million views

A still image with accompanying wind sounds managed to fool 16 million Facebook users.

A full moon 'supermoon' rises behind Fort Ricasoli in Valletta's Grand Harbour, Malta, January 31, 2018. (REUTERS)

Facebook got everyone fooled on Tuesday. On January 31, the Earth witnessed the celestial event of 'Super Blue Blood Moon' which left everyone staring at the night sky. It even got 16 million eyes fixated on a video supposedly of the 'blood moon' which turned out to be fake.

This fake video was shown as a live coverage of the 'blood moon' cast over Greece. Turns out this video was only a still image with wind sounds in the background, reports CNN. This video was so cleverly doctored that it managed to garner 16 million views which is way higher than NASA's. It was posted on Facebook by this page called 'EBUZZ' which currently has 250,000 followers. The video has since then been removed.

Deciphering the buzz behind this video, it was discovered the image of the moon was taken nine years back by a photographer named Chris Kotsiopoulos. CNN reports the photographer being used to his picture being misused but never in this way.

To make the live more convincing, the image of the supposed blood moon was placed over the Temple of Poseidon which is located in the south of Greece. The dupers also added the live timestamp and wind sounds, as mentioned above.

The video went viral and it continued since it was the first result that appeared when people searched for 'supermoon' on Facebook. It's weirdly impressive how this fake live video managed to fool so many people. At the same time, it also shows the social media giant's incapability of countering this incident.

This isn't the first time such an incident has occurred. A very popular picture which made its presence during Diwali was discovered to be fake just last year. This image which was believed to be photographed by NASA from space showed how beautifully India was lit up during Diwali.