A video on X has garnered over 1 millions views that claims to show Indonesia destroying Chinese vessels for illegally fishing in Indonesian waters. The post’s commentary also includes strong statements about further similar action if China’s maritime activity in Indonesia persists.

In the video, which appears to be a news report, an explosive detonates on a fishing vessel, destroying it completely. The banner on the screen includes the caption “31 illegal boats were sank across the country.”

Given the ongoing tensions between China and several South East Asian countries regarding land and maritime claims in the South China Sea area, this clam is eye-catching – and the potential geopolitical impacts of such a conflict would be significant.

We first traced the video’s source to find out if it really depicts Chinese vessels being blown up. Our search led us to a video posted by The Associated Press YouTube archive channel in 2016 (over 9 years ago). Titled “Indonesia demolishes 31 illegal fishing boats.” The video is nearly 2 minutes long and includes more context about the fishing vessels being destroyed.Rather than being recently destroyed Chinese fishing vessels, the clip covers the story of 31 illegal fishing boats being destroyed in 2016 as part of an investigation by The Indonesian Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry. The boats in the video were from several countries including Vietnam and Malaysia, but not including China. While the claim post allows for speculation over whether any fishermen were still on the vessels, reports from the 2016 exercise clearly state that the fishing boats were empty and only destroyed after being confiscated as a show of Indonesia’s firm stance against illegal activities in its waters.

While other reports on Indonesia’s efforts to reduce illegal fishing in their waters on other occasions have mentioned Chinese vessels being among boats of other origins being held and sunk, China is not being specifically singled out. Rather, the large majority of boats sunk were from countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Therefore, it appears that the X account making the claim clipped the an old video in order to make a false claim about Chinese vessels being recently destroyed. The video does not show Chinese vessels being blown up by Indonesia for illegal fishing. We give this claim a rating of false.

The account that posted this claim is located in Vietnam. It appears to be a relatively small account that occasionally has viral posts on geopolitical issues written in a “news update” style.

 However, a scan of the account shows misinformation (such as this claim) alongside extremely heated commentary on China’s activities in the South China Sea – with misinformation and misleadingly labelled videos being the most viral of the account’s posts.

Posts from accounts such as this should be approached with caution – particularly when no reliable source is provided.

The use of old, unlabelled, and uncredited footage is a significant issue on social media. For one, videos can easily capture interest (versus just a text-based claim) and are easily clipped and reshared.  When paired with sensitive topics such as this, they can stir up strong anxiety and anger, causing geopolitical friction based on inaccurate information.