False Info Spreads on Social Media after Japan Quake

Tokyo, April 23 (Jiji Press)--False information, including claims of an "artificial earthquake," has spread on social media following a quake on Monday that registered up to upper 5, the fourth-highest level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, in northeastern Japan.

Immediately after the magnitude 7.7 quake off the Sanriku Pacific coast of northeastern Japan on Monday, which recorded upper 5 seismic intensity in the town of Hashikami, Aomori Prefecture, there were many posts on X, formerly Twitter, claiming that the temblor was artificial.

Several posts claimed that the Chikyu deep-sea drilling vessel operated by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, which was conducting research off the Hidaka southern coast of Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, caused the earthquake, despite the epicenter being off the Sanriku coast.

One of these posts had over 50,000 views. None provided scientific evidence for their claims.

"Drilling by a research vessel does not affect the movement of the entire earth," a JAMSTEC official said, rejecting the claim.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]