In January 2026, a video circulated online purportedly showing people interacting with a European-style white dragon. Numerous social media users claimed the footage was captured in China.
For example, one X user who shared the clip wrote (archived): "NEW: White Dragon spotted in China." The video featured overlaid text reading: "Shocking Video of a White Dragon captured at a secret Government Facility in China."
The video, which was divided into three cuts, showed the dragon in a grassy clearing surrounded by trees. The first and third cuts showed one individual interacting with the creature, while a second person appeared during the second cut. The footage also appeared on Instagram (archived).
Other versions of the clip, but without the overlaid "secret government facility" text, spread elsewhere on Instagram (archived) and Facebook (archived).
Although shared as "evidence" of dragons being real, the video did not authentically show fantasy coming to life. The footage was first shared with a label declaring it was created using artificial intelligence (AI) tools, a label other social media accounts failed to include when resharing it. As such, we have rated this clip fake.
Origin of fake footage
The oldest version of the video that could be found online came from a Jan. 7, 2026, TikTok post (archived) from an account called faunavision7. That post included a label acknowledging the footage "contains AI-generated media."
Snopes contacted the account through a TikTok message to confirm that it created the clip. We will update this story if we receive a response.
The faunavision7 account wrote its caption for the video in Indonesian. The post, translated to English using Google, read:
Is this legend of the grandmother who raised a dragon real?
In remote parts of China, an old story circulates about a white dragon living in hiding, guarded by an unknown grandmother in the middle of the forest. In Chinese history, white dragons are believed to be sacred creatures that maintain the balance of nature and are harbingers of great change.
This footage has brought that old story back into discussion there.
Do you think this is real or just AI? Or is it a video deliberately created for a conspiracy to resurface?
While faunavision7 posed the reality of the footage as a question, the Bio of its companion Facebook account (archived) translated to "AI-generated visualizations of unique creatures and fauna. Entertainment and imagination."
Faunavision7's other TikTok videos (archived) appeared to be "AI-generated visualizations of unique creatures and fauna," as its Facebook account described, including a kitsune and a hydra. The creator labeled the hydra footage as AI-generated.
Clear signs video was AI-generated
In the opening seconds, the dragon had spines running along the back of its neck, but they disappeared entirely in the next cut and were either diminished or non-existent in the final cut. Similarly, at the start, the dragon's tail was forked at the tip. The forked tip seemingly disappeared during the middle of the video, although shadows obscured perfect visibility. In the final part of the footage, the end of the tail was tipped with what appeared to be a tuft of fur.
(TikTok user @faunavision7)
Additionally, when the dragon started walking in the final cut, its legs did not move naturally. At one point, its front left leg seemed to disappear. Although its legs were difficult to see, the dragon appeared to have two or three right legs and then an unnaturally placed leg just beneath a wing and too far behind the other legs.
(TikTok user @faunavision7)
Snopes has previously fact-checked other fabricated evidence of real dragons — alive, dead and fossilized.