A rumor discussed online claimed a video showed a solid look at an unidentified drone flying at a low altitude in New Jersey. The clip circulated in December 2024, at a time when the state's residents reported seeing and hearing a large number of mysterious drones flying over their neighborhoods at night.
The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a joint statement on Dec. 12, saying, in part, "We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus."
One user who posted about the video — also on Dec. 12 — wrote on X, "Oh, good, it looks like we're dealing with Imperial interceptors. Nice." The quip referenced the "Star Wars" ship known as an Imperial interceptor. A user replying to the post contended the unidentified flying object more resembled a TIE defender. A different user also mentioned Batman.
The video displayed a TikTok watermark for user @iceman_fox1. A quick check of @iceman_fox1's TikTok feed showed the clip was uploaded on Dec. 11. The video received around 2 million views within its first 24 hours.
Upon loading the video in the TikTok mobile app, the caption read, "An unidentified drone is spotted flying at low altitude somewhere..."
One user replied to the video, "Finally someone recorded with a Samsung!!" That comment received nearly 24,000 likes. Another reply with over 10,000 likes read, "Definitely the best footage yet… if it's real."
However, expanding the video's caption by tapping the word "more" revealed a disclaimer saying the user digitally created the clip. Other videos in the user's feed also featured captions clarifying they digitally created the clips. The full caption of the in-question video read:
An unidentified drone is spotted flying at low altitude somewhere over New Jersey
#drone #uap #ufo #newjersey #jersey
This video was created digitally.
We contacted TikTok user @iceman_fox1 by email to ask several questions, including about the tools used to create the video. We will update this story if we receive more details.