Did a Temu warehouse go up in flames in China? No, a photo shared as evidence is AI-generated

Social media posts are sharing a photo that appears to show a warehouse for the global online marketplace Temu on fire. But it’s all smoke and mirrors.

A Dec. 30, 2024, Instagram post shared the photo, claiming “a 57,000 square foot Temu warehouse in China went up in flames today.” The photo showed a large building marked with the Temu name and logo on fire with smoke billowing out of the top.

The post also made fun of Temu, which is known for its inexpensive products. “The total loss of inventory has been estimated to be as high as $56.19 USD,” text above the photo read.

(Screenshot from Instagram)

Other users on Facebook, Instagram and Threads also shared this photo; some posts had different estimates for the inventory loss. These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

PolitiFact did a reverse-image search of the photo using Google Images and found it has been widely shared across multiple social media platforms.

But the image is fake. In some social media posts, a watermark for Grok, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot created by Elon Musk’s company xAI, can be seen in the photo’s bottom right corner. Other posts cropped the photo to remove the watermark.

Another sign the photo is AI-generated is the distorted Temu name and logo on the warehouse. The “M” in Temu’s logo looks more like an “H” and the symbols above the name don’t match the company’s logo.

We also found no credible news reports that there was a recent fire at a Temu warehouse in China.

We rate the claim that a photo shows a large Temu warehouse in China that “went up in flames” False.

By

Sara Swann

Digital Research Analyst

January 3, 2025

Truth-o-meter Ruling

False

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• This photo is fake. A reverse-image search shows that it was made using Grok, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot created by Elon Musk’s company xAI.

• We also found no credible news reports that there was a recent fire at a Temu warehouse in China.

Statement

Photo shows a large Temu warehouse in China “went up in flames.”

Context

a post

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Social Media

Statement Date

December 30, 2024