Recently, information circulated online about the spherical screen of Las Vegas’ MSG Sphere that broadcast an image of the Russian flag and congratulations “on Russian Flag Day”. Our fact-checking team checked

What happened?

Telegram channels “Vypuskajte Krakena/Let the Kraken Out!” (archive), “Shkvarka News” (archive) and “V🇷🇺Ruka Kremlya🇷🇺Z” (archive) spread information that the world’s largest spherical screen, MSG Sphere, in Las Vegas, United States, allegedly displayed an image of the Russian flag.

The caption “Congratulations on the Day of the Flag of the Russian Federation” would circle the image of the flag.

Analysis

The MSG Sphere is the world’s largest spherical music and entertainment venue in Paradise, an “unincorporated city” in Las Vegas. Its main feature is that its outer surface is covered with LED screens that broadcast various images and videos. Inside is an event hall.

We reached out to Sphere Entertainment Co., a company that owns the MSG Sphere, and asked them to confirm or deny the information about the Russian Flag Day greeting on the sphere’s screen.

The company responded that the image was fake and had been computer enhanced.

We then found on the official MSG Sphere Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok accounts the original video from January 21, 2024, which was likely used to create the fake video.

We assume that the original video has been edited by slowing down the playback speed of the original and replacing the spherical screen image with the Russian flag.

The information that the Russian flag was displayed on the largest spherical screen in the world in Las Vegas and that there were congratulations for Russian Flag Day (August 22) is therefore not true.

Conclusion: fake

Author: Ihor Sum