False information, including claims of an "artificial earthquake," has spread on social media following a quake?on Monday that registered up to upper 5, the fourth-highest level, on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in northeastern Japan.
Immediately after the magnitude 7.7 quake off the Sanriku Pacific coast of northeastern Japan on Monday, which recorded upper-5 seismic intensity in the town of Hashikami, Aomori Prefecture, there were many posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, claiming that the temblor was artificial.
Several posts claimed that the Chikyu deep-sea drilling vessel operated by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), which was conducting research off the Hidaka southern coast of Hokkaido,?caused the earthquake, despite the epicenter being off the Sanriku coast.
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