What was claimed
A photo shows a large Union Jack hanging from Rochester Castle as part of the recent movement to raise flags in public spaces across the UK.
Our verdict
This is misleading. The photo predates this movement, and shows the flag raised to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day in May 2025.
Thousands have shared a photo of Rochester Castle in Kent decorated with a Union Jack flag with the suggestion it’s part of a recent social media campaign to raise St George’s and Union Jack flags in public spaces.
But the image predates this movement, and the flag was flown to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day earlier this year.
The photo has been shared widely recently with overlaid text saying: “Rochester Castle raises the flag”. This appears to be referring to the recent movement to display St George’s and Union Jack flags in public places. Dubbed ‘Operation Raise the Colours’, this practice seems to have started in July.
But the flag in this image is not part of this movement. It was shared on Facebook on 9 May, the day after the VE Day anniversary, commemorating the end of World War Two in Europe.
A spokesperson for Medway Council, which is responsible for running the castle, told us: “The large Union Flag was draped across Rochester Castle as part of Medway’s VE Day celebrations earlier this year.” The council clarified it was flown from 1 to 13 May, and added that the flag was kept up for a bank holiday weekend and festival following VE Day.
In April, the council published its plans to commemorate VE Day, which included draping the Union Jack from Rochester Castle.
This is not the first example of misinformation we’ve seen concerning this recent movement, including a fake Daily Mail article, and both miscaptioned images and a video. Our toolkit gives you advice on how to navigate bad information online.
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 missing context because this photo predates the recent movement to raise Union Jack and St George’s flags in public spaces across the UK, and the flag was raised for the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
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