In the wake of Super Typhoon Ragasa, which has hit multiple countries over the past week, we have seen posts claiming to show Hong Kong’s preparation for the storm. These posts contain images of plastic-wrapped public transportation and infrastructure, with some claiming that this shows Hong Kong’s method of protecting buildings and vehicles from damage.
The images depict buses, subway trains, airplanes, and even entire buildings covered in plastic wrap and heavily taped or strapped down. They have been reshared on several social media platforms, with many convinced they are real and complimenting Hong Kong’s preemptive measures.
Typhoon Ragasa formed around 17th September (the “strongest storm of 2025”) and swept across the Philippines, Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong over the following days, leaving fatalities and significant damage in its wake. Preparations and evacuations were implemented across the affected countries, with the taping of certain building elements and plastic coverings being used.
However, several elements stood out to us as suspicious. For one, the pictures all have a similar glossy, bright and evenly lit appearance, which is a hallmark of AI generated images. This is because AIs are trained with data that includes many stock photos taken in studios with perfect lighting or that have undergone airbrushing – resulting in the AI producing images that have an artificial smoothness.
Aside from the glossiness, a closer look at the details in the images show slight inaccuracies in scale and alignment, alongside subtle misspellings of brand names (such as Sprite) which are highly unlikely to happen in prominent printed ads.
A search for the earliest advent of these images showed they came from an Instagram post on 23 September made by a user called “hkaiguy” who self describes on his profiles as an “AI Meme guy from HK.” This further suggests that the images are AI-generated and do not reflect real typhoon preparations. In response to queries from another fact-checking outlet, the user has since confirmed that the images were AI generated as part of a light-hearted post amidst the scramble to prepare for the typhoon.
The images from this post appear to have been taken out of context and mislabeled as typhoon preparation. While it is true that plastic wrap can be used to protect vehicles and infrastructure, none of the examples we could find look like the claim picture. Instead, the preparation we saw from Hong Kong-based sources show sandbags used as fortification against heavy winds, and tape on glass windows to prevent breakage.
Therefore, we give this claim a rating of false.
Bad actors often take advantage of crises such as natural disasters to gain clicks and views – sometimes for profit and other times to cause chaos and confusion. Being alert to the use of AI and critical about the media we consume is an important way to ensuring that mis/disinformation does not saturate social media – especially when social media can also be used as a tool for spreading awareness and safety advice.
