Drone video has been online since at least 2022, unrelated to US sightings | Fact check
The claim: Video shows drones flying over US in 2024
A Dec. 17 Threads post (direct link, archive link) includes a video showing drones flying above a city.
“So the drones aren’t just in NJ,” reads the text on the video, which was originally posted on TikTok. “There’s reports in TX and Oregon as well. Now I’m hearing that they’re spraying stuff. Any labs out there feel like grabbing a sample with SUMMA air sampling canisters?”
The Threads post was shared more than 50 times in two days.
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Our rating: False
The video is unrelated to the spate of recent drone sightings, as it has been online since at least November 2022.
Claim follows other misinformation about drone sightings
Thousands of drone sightings have been reported in several states since November. The drones prompted the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio to close its airspace for several hours and the New York Stewart Airport to temporarily shut down its runways. They also prevented a medevac helicopter from picking up an injured person in New Jersey.
But the video included in the Threads post is unrelated to those incidents.
It was uploaded to both TikTok and YouTube in November 2022, predating the U.S. sightings by two years.
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Paste BN has debunked an array of claims related to drones, including false assertions that the Pentagon “confirmed” drones spotted in the U.S. are “not of earthly origin,” that a video shows a drone crash in New Jersey and that an image shows a drone that crashed in Alabama in December 2024.
Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources
- @Foryotiktokpage, Nov. 28, 2022, TikTok post
- @НН-Новотонормално (YouTube), Nov. 27, 2022, Drones spray chemicals against covid in China
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