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A recent video has gained traction on social media, purporting to capture a serene surprise planned by Emirati children for their father’s birthday. However, what begins as a delightful moment quickly turns into a harrowing sequence.
The footage, circulated widely on platforms like Facebook and X, shows a man seated in a chair attached to numerous colourful helium balloons, ascending rapidly into the sky. This heart-stopping moment has garnered notable viewer engagement, with one post on X accumulating over 2.4 million views.
Celebration Turns into Crisis
According to those sharing the video, a group of young Emiratis intended to surprise their father on his birthday in an unconventional manner. They secured balloons to his chair, but to their shock, the balloons lifted him into the air, leading to an emergency that required rescue teams to intervene.
Digital Spread
The video has seen a significant digital spread, with various accounts reposting it with similar narratives but consistent details. This rapid sharing has propagated the story widely, promoting it as a ‘recently documented event’ from multiple angles.
Assessing the Authenticity
To verify the claims made, the Open Source Unit at Al Jazeera investigated the footage using multiple methods, including frame analysis for technical discrepancies and reverse image searches to trace each scene individually. Their findings reveal that the video consists of two entirely separate clips that lack any temporal, spatial, or narrative connection. Neither segment verifies a genuine birthday celebration in the UAE or elsewhere.
Analysis showed stark differences in shooting quality, resolution, lighting angles, and geographical features between the balloon scene and subsequent rescue visuals. A watermarked logo from the video editing app ‘VivaVideo’ suggested the video underwent editing and remixing before being presented with the misleading narrative.
Original Advert from 2016
Tracing back, the unit discovered that portions of the video originate from a promotional video released on YouTube on 5 September 2016, nearly a decade prior to its current misleading circulation. The original video, published by “Misfits Marketing Campaigns,” was part of a creative campaign to promote Dubai Creek Harbour, a real estate project by Emaar Properties, aiming to showcase the development rather than document a family celebration.
Real Rescue from 2018
Conversely, the second segment of the video depicting a rescue operation occurs in a rugged mountainous area. This event was genuine yet unconnected to the balloon incident. It pertains to a real-life incident from September 2018, in which an Asian woman fell in Ras Al Khaimah during a hiking trip with her husband and friends. Subsequent reports indicate she sustained serious injuries and tragically passed away following the incident.
Previous Misuse of the Video
This footage has not been repurposed for misleading narratives before. Historical checks reveal similar claims have circulated, framing the video as documenting a birthday tragedy in various countries, including Oman and Saudi Arabia. The recurrence of such misleading stories demonstrates a common trend in the manipulation of viral content.
The continued geographical shifts in these narratives, often with only the nationality altered, signify a traditional marker of deceptive content. Genuine events seldom repeat across diverse locations with identical details. The producing company of the original advertisement had previously noted that their promotional content was exploited without consent to fabricate false news, with the combination of unrelated footage intended to cast a dramatic narrative.