Sinkhole in New York City? Don’t panic, this video is AI-generated.

A video circulating online depicted a disturbing scene: A massive sinkhole had opened in the middle of a New York City street.

The video, shared Feb. 12 on Instagram, showed hundreds of people gathered behind barricades surrounding the sinkhole. Police officers and emergency response vehicles with flashing lights were also at the scene.

But this video is fake.

(Screenshot from Instagram)

The post was 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.)

Sinkholes are openings in the ground that form when water dissolves surface rock. Limestone, for example, is easily eroded by water, so areas with limestone can be more susceptible to sinkholes, National Geographic said.

Featured Fact-check

Viral image

stated on February 11, 2025 in a Facebook post

Video shows celebrities wearing T-shirts with graphics of a middle finger and the word “Kanye.”

Using Google Images to conduct a reverse-image search on the video, PolitiFact found a Feb. 11 TikTok video sharing the same footage.

"Sinkhole in New York City. Do you think this could happen?" the video’s caption read. The TikTok account, "endlessstoriespictures," says in its bio that it posts "daily dystopian content." The account labeled this video as artificial intelligence-generated content.

We searched for recent news reports about sinkholes in New York City and found none. In January 2024, a sinkhole opened in Brooklyn, New York, but this video does not match footage from that incident.

We rate the claim that a video shows the aftermath of a large New York City sinkhole is False.