A video shows the Ukrainian flag being flown from the top of the Statue of Liberty.
This is not a real video. A watermark in the bottom right corner suggests it was made by OpenAI’s text-to-video artificial intelligence model, Sora.
A video which appears to show the Ukrainian flag being flown from the Statue of Liberty in New York has been shared widely on social media. But it isn’t real, and was likely created using artificial intelligence (AI).
Full Fact traced the clip back to a TikTok video posted on 2 March 2025, which was labelled “AI-generated” and included the caption: “The AI video opens with a sweeping aerial view of the Statue of Liberty, standing majestically against the backdrop of a clear blue sky.” Hashtags such as ‘#aivideo’ and ‘#sora’ further suggest it was AI-generated.
Sora is an AI model developed by OpenAI that creates videos from text instructions. Sora-generated AI videos contain a watermark in the bottom right corner which looks like a waveform that transforms into OpenAI’s logo.
Both the TikTok video and the version of the clip being shared on Threads include the Sora watermark, indicating the video was created using the AI model. The versions on X have been zoomed in, which crops out the watermark.
Full Fact could not find any credible reports that the Ukrainian flag had been hoisted from the Statue of Liberty in recent weeks.
The National Park Service, which manages the monument, has not made any statements about the Ukrainian flag being flown. Live webcam footage from EarthCam, which monitors the statue, also does not show the Ukrainian flag on the torch.
Before sharing content that you see on social media, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trusted and verified source. Our guides to spotting misleading images and videos can help you better navigate content online.
You can find more of our work checking claims relating to the war in Ukraine on our website, including an explainer on the recent peace talks.
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 false because it isn’t a real video, and was almost certainly AI-generated.
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