What was claimed
A clip shows pirates being shot at.
Our verdict
False. The clip shows US Navy operational testing in 2017.
Clip shows US Navy testing, not pirates being shot at
A clip showing shots directed at a small boat is circulating with the claim it shows “pirates”. But it actually shows a US Navy exercise.
One post sharing the video on X (formerly Twitter) with more than 2,000 reposts has the caption “Pirates getting smoked”. The clip has also been shared on Facebook and Instagram with similar captions.
However, the clip comes from a longer video shared on YouTube in March 2017 with the description: “US Navy Sailors aboard the Amphibious Assault Ship USS America (LHA 6) load ammunition into the Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) and Mk-38 25mm chain gun for Operational Testing.”
The testing, which took place in the Pacific Ocean, involved various training exercises demonstrating that the USS America’s weapons systems were functional and safe. The US Indo-Pacific Command reported at the time that the USS America “successfully performed operational tests of the Mark 38 and CIWS on low-cost, modular targets.”
The International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau recorded 79 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships from January to September 2024, which is a decrease from 99 in the same period in 2023.
Miscaptioned videos are a common form of online misinformation, and we’ve written about many clips supposedly showing maritime incidents being shared with false or misleading captions.
It’s important to consider whether something shows what it claims to before sharing it—our guide on verifying misleading videos provides advice for doing this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the clip shows a US Navy testing exercise, not pirates being shot at.