Fact check: Viral video of the Israeli flag on Las Vegas Sphere is VFX

Hyderabad: An image of The Sphere in Las Vegas is being widely shared on social media with the claim that it was lit up with the Israeli flag to show support for Israel amidst the Israel-Hamas conflict. The caption of the post reads, “The sphere in Las Vegas is now lighting up the Israeli flag in support of Israel. (sic)”

Another video of The Sphere with the same projection was found on a YouTube channel BNM Breaking with the caption, ‘Las Vegas Sphere’s Display of Israeli Flag Sparks Mixed Reactions.’

The description of the video reads, “The Las Vegas Sphere illuminates with the Israeli flag, sparking a mix of applause and criticism. As the world watches the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, cultural events become stages for political expression and debate.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the image and the video were photoshopped.

Firstly, we could not find any credible media organization reporting about the Israeli flag on The Sphere as something like this would have caught mainstream media's attention.

Then we noticed multiple comments from X users calling the image fake. Even the official account of the Las Vegas Sphere commented saying, “This image was photoshopped. Please reach us with any questions about Sphere.”

The community notes of X also mentioned that the video is fake and ‘the sphere has not displayed the flag.’ It attached the comment from The Sphere’s account as proof.

Next, we tried to find out the creator of the video. A comment under the tweet of the fake video mentioned that the Israel flag’s projection on The Sphere is ‘a digital video effects creation by Las Vegas artist @Tallywood.’

Taking this as a cue, we performed a keyword search and found Tallywood’s X account. A pinned tweet on the account said “I posted a VFX video of an Israeli flag on a ball. I was trying to raise awareness of what is goin on in my country. My 2 cousins wr at a festival that hundreds of people wr slaughtered and murdered at. I wntd 2create NOISE and be heard. But I always said VFX @LasVegasLocally. (sic)”

This confirmed that Tallywood created the VFX video of the Israeli flag on The Sphere in Las Vegas.

Another search led us to the Instagram account of the creator where we found the same video uploaded on October 10 with the caption, “For my two missing cousins. For Amit. For my entire country! VFX Curation with me and a friend. Not real. AGAIN. UPDATED. NOT A REAL VIDEO. (sic)”

Moving forward, we also found a Facebook Reel in which the user has tagged and mentioned @Tallywood as the creator of the video.

With this, it is evident that the viral image is photoshopped.