China-Nepal flood videos vanish from Chinese internet

Eyewitness videos from the deadly China-Nepal border flood have largely disappeared from Chinese social media, while Nepal has pressed platforms to remove fabricated posts but continued giving regular public casualty updates.

The August 26 surge of water, mud and debris followed a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border. It killed more than 1,400 people and left more than 5,650 missing, including hundreds of foreigners.

Both governments have acted against false online claims. Umesh Shrestha, chair of Press Council Nepal, said the independent regulatory body had asked more than 100 social media accounts to remove content and that most complied. Nepali police arrested one man accused of sharing a fabricated donation to a relief fund to promote his personal account.

China's Ministry of Public Security said 10 people had been penalised for allegedly spreading falsehoods online. They included people accused of suggesting the real death toll was higher than official figures.

Beijing's foreign ministry said the release of information had been "open, transparent and timely" and criticised what it called "malicious smearing and sensationalism". Chinese authorities also organised a trip for a small number of foreign media to the Tibetan epicentre of the disaster.

AFP fact-checkers have debunked dozens of flood-related claims in several languages. One video falsely described as showing the glacial collapse was filmed days earlier at Alaska's Columbia Glacier. Other videos made with Google's AI tools showed water breaching a riverbank and flooding streets, drawing tens of thousands of interactions.

AFP said it verified video showing the deluge engulfing Gyirong Port, the border post with Nepal, but that this and other eyewitness content had largely disappeared from the Chinese internet. Platforms including Douyin and Weibo instead carried extensive state media coverage of search operations, with little naming of the missing or footage of families' reactions.

In Nepal, authorities have held talks with Meta and TikTok to speed removal of AI content, graphic images and fraudulent aid schemes. Direct comments from victims' families have remained available on and offline.

Aleksandra Bielakowska, a Taipei-based advocacy manager for Reporters Without Borders, said Beijing's restrictions had created an "atmosphere of mistrust". Celia Mercier, head of the group's South Asia desk, said Nepal had "largely treated misinformation as a problem within an otherwise relatively open information environment".