Fact Check: Video of a giant octopus climbing car in NY is CGI-generated

New York has declared an emergency after heavy rainfall caused flash floods. Amid this, a video showing a giant octopus climbing a car is doing the rounds on social media, with users claiming that the video is from New York.

A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “#BREAKING: #State of #Emergency declared in #New York #City due to Mass #flooding. Be #careful where you park your #car.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is Computer-generated (CGI).

We noticed @ghost3dee written at the bottom at the bottom left corner of the viral video. Taking this cue, we looked for social media accounts and found the video posted by a YouTube channel of the same name titled “Giant Octopus crushes car #houdini #octanerender #octane #fxsimulation #sidefx #octopus #cgi.”

The hashtags used in the caption clearly state that the video is CGI-generated.

In the About section, it is mentioned the channel belongs to a VFX artist who is the father of Churro — the CGI octopus.

Further, we checked the artist’s Instagram account and found the video posted on 25 September before heavy rainfall and flash floods inundated New York. Again in the caption, the artist has used hashtags such as ‘CGI’ and ‘Simulation’, which confirms that the video is computer generated.

Hence, we conclude that the viral video of a giant Octopus climbing a car is CGI-generated.