TikTok astrologer arrested for predicting new Myanmar earthquake in a viral video.

Saturday, April 26, 2025 - Myanmar authorities have arrested an astrologer for causing panic by predicting a new earthquake in a viral TikTok video. 

On April 9, just two weeks after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed 3,500 people, John Moe The took to X to post a troubling prediction about an inprnding earthquake. 

John Moe The had warned that an earthquake would "hit every city in Myanmar" on 21 April. 

In his video, which got more than three million views, John Moe The urged people to "take important things with you and run away from buildings during the shaking." 

"People should not stay in tall buildings during the day," he wrote in the caption. 

He was arrested on Tuesday, April 22, for making "false statements with the intention of causing public panic," Myanmar's information ministry said. 

He was arrested during a raid on his home in Sagaing, central Myanmar. 

A Yangon resident told AFP that many of her neighbours believed in the prediction. As a result, they refused to stay in their homes and camped outside the day John Moe The said the earthquake would happen.