Claims of manmade quake spread online after southwestern Japan disaster

TOKYO - Claims that the recent magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck southwestern Japan was manmade have been spreading online, with experts dismissing the theory as unrealistic in technological, financial and practical terms.

On July 28, the day the deadly earthquake hit Kumamoto Prefecture, a user on X who has previously shared false claims about earthquakes wrote that the "seismic wave is of an explosion, not a quake" in a post that has had around 3 million views as of Wednesday.