An FBI investigation found no evidence of a threat to public safety after reports starting in mid-November of mysterious drone sightings across New Jersey and the eastern United States prompted intense speculation online.
Although many of the sightings are real, some of the videos posted to social media supposedly showing drones are fake or misleading. Here's a look at some of those videos.
Video from AI creator shared without context
Several videos from TikTok accounts spread on other social media platforms, with many users believing the videos showed unidentified drone sightings in New Jersey in December.
A Dec. 14 post on and Dec. 18 post on claim to show one such video, which depicts what appears to be a drone flying low across the treetops while two voices can be heard apparently questioning what they're seeing, with one asking, "What is that?"
In the video, the drone's light flashes green, blue, red and yellow as it flies over the trees. A patch of sky behind the drone flashes the same colours before the video ends.
Text overlaid on the video claims the drone encounter took place in New Jersey on Dec. 14.
The video received more than 60,000 views on Facebook and 19,000 views on Instagram.
Rating: AI-generated video
A reverse image search of a frame from the Facebook video shows it was on Dec. 14 by TikTok user @ai.inclined, where it received more than 180,000 likes and 20,000 shares.
Many commenters seem to think the video is real, despite the fact the original posterlabelled it as generated by artificial intelligence.
The used in the video of a man and woman expressing surprise and asking "What is that?" does not originate from the original poster and appears in more than 10,000 other TikToks.
The user's notes that their videos are fake and created with AI.
Digitally generated drone video shared without context
Another video of a drone flying over a city at night was posted Dec. 12 on and Dec. 13 on .
The video received more than 39,000 views on X and 8,000 views on Instagram.
"One of the unidentified 'drones' filmed today in New Jersey," the Instagram caption reads.
Rating: Digitally generated video
The videos include text with the TikTok logo and user handle @iceman_fox1. A search for that user handle brings up the original video on Dec. 11 to @iceman_fox1's TikTok, where it received more than 12 million views, and to the same day.
The original video's caption notes it was created digitally.
The user's links to a , which includes links to Facebook and YouTube pages also bearing the handle @iceman_fox1 and where the video also appears.
The notes the videos are made with Digital Combat Simulator (DCS), a game that allows users to create and play realistic simulations featuring military aircraft and vehicles.
The game website @iceman_fox1 as part of the community who create content with the game.
Video of person shooting at drone was digitally altered
A video posted to on Dec. 13 and on Dec. 15 include captions that claim it shows shots being fired at a drone in New Jersey.
The videos include the sound of gunfire paired with lights appearing to fly from the direction of the camera toward the supposed drone as it flies across a dark sky.
The video ends as the drone disappears behind a house.
Rating: Manipulated video
One of the videos has a watermark with the words 鈥渄rone hunter.鈥
A reverse image search of screenshots from the video and a keyword search of "drone hunter" and "New Jersey" on Google lead to a video posted to on Dec. 4 by user Robert Earl White, days before the other videos circulated online.
The video uploaded to YouTube features a man speaking and no gunshots can be heard or seen.
The YouTube video description links to White's X account, where he the video on Dec. 4 and a posted to X on Dec. 7.
Text on the video says it was filmed in Bridgeton, N.J. and geolocation using a street sign present in the video confirmed a .
On Dec. 13, White the video to X with gunshot sounds in place of the speaking voice from his previous videos and a "drone hunter" watermark.
In the post, White says the gunfire is fake.
A TikTok commenter said the gunfire audio and video likely comes from a , which claims to show AK-47 tracer rounds being fired at night. Both the sound and pattern of the shots matches up with the doctored video.
In an email to 香港六合彩挂牌资料, White said he overlaid the YouTube video onto the drone footage, which he says was recorded in Bridgeton on Dec. 4.
"I kept trying to re-share the video in different ways to have it be noticed," White said.
He added that "thousands" of other YouTube channels have since shared the video without context.
Sources
Drone posted to TikTok from user @ai.inclined from Dec. 14, 2024 (), and reposted without context to on Dec. 14, 2024 () and on Dec. 18, 2024 (, )
Profile page of TikTok user accessed Dec. 27, 2024 ()
Drone video from user @iceman_fox1 from Dec. 11, 2024 on () and Dec. 14, 2024 on YouTube (), and reposted without context to X on Dec. 12, 2024 () and Dec. 13, 2024 (, )
TikTok profile page of user accessed Dec. 27, 2024 ()
for iceman_fox1 accessed Dec. 24, 2024 ()
for Digital Combat Simulator accessed Dec. 24, 2024 () and from Sept. 1, 2023 ()
Video of man shooting at drone posted to on Dec. 13, 2024 (, ) and on Dec. 15, 2024 (), and original video from Dec. 4, 2024 on (). A longer version of the original video was also posted to X on Dec. 7, 2024(, )
location of video geolocated to Bridgeton, N.J., accessed Dec. 24, 2024 ()
Edited drone video with gunshots posted to on Dec. 13, 2024 ()
鈥 YouTube, May 2, 2017 ()
()
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