NEW YORK - On TikTok, one video casts a recent string of mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey as an “#invasion” “coming off the ocean” to target “sensitive infrastructure” like bridges and nuclear plants. On Facebook and X, posts say the sightings are evidence of an Iranian espionage operation or a U.S. military surveillance campaign.
None of the claims are substantiated, and state and federal officials are struggling to calm a wave of online anxiety that has spread to multiple states. But with public trust in mainstream media at a record low, the pipeline from trending content to full-blown conspiracy theory has never been shorter.
More than half of U.S. adults now get their news from social media, according to data from the Pew Research Center, and the voracious demands of the content economy often influence what’s considered newsworthy and how fast stories develop. Over the past month, as authorities have met the growing drone panic with occasional flight restrictions and scant information, online creators and communities have taken over, rushing to fill in the blanks with theories tailored to followers across the political spectrum.
“Conspiracies appeal to people who feel disenfranchised,” said Jonathan Anzalone, assistant director of the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University. “It’s understandable for anyone, regardless of ideology or political affiliation, to feel powerless in a world shaped by forces beyond our control.”
By most accounts, it all began in mid-November when the Asbury Park Press reported that people claimed to have seen large drones flying low in the skies over New Jersey. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tried to allay concerns, saying it had found no evidence of drone activity. But flight restrictions issued in the following days over President-elect Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course and a local military base fanned the furor.
[Drone detectors in New Jersey have found ‘little or no evidence’ of wrongdoing, governor says]
Since then, purported drone witnesses from Connecticut to Virginia - and as far west as Ohio - have taken to social media to share photos or videos of their sightings, which typically look like faraway orbs or blinking lights. Some have offered rank speculation: Did the government’s lax response to the drone reports indicate that authorities were somehow involved?
“This is the reason the government wants TikTok banned, so we can’t see what they’re doing,” said one TikTok comment with 20,000 likes on an unconfirmed news clip about dozens of drones emerging straight from the ocean.
Trump has fueled the frenzy, suggesting on Truth Social that the government is hiding information about the drones. “Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!” he posted Friday.
He repeated the claim during a Monday news conference at Mar-a-Lago. “The government knows what is happening,” he said. “For some reason, they don’t want to comment.”
The White House pushed back. John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson, told reporters that the government has “not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast.”
And late Monday, four federal agencies - the FAA, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon - issued a rare joint statement, confirming that the government has received reports of more than 5,000 drone sightings in recent weeks, is following more than 100 leads, and has sent trained observers and “advanced detection technology” to affected regions.
However, more than a million drones are “lawfully registered with the FAA,” including thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones “lawfully in the sky on any given day,” the joint statement said. “With the technology landscape evolving, we expect that number to increase over time.”
The Defense Department has said unidentified drones have long been a common problem close to military bases. In addition to perfectly legal drones, the sightings probably involve misidentified airplanes, other agencies have said.
Indeed, Nelson Delgado, the Newark FBI office’s acting special agent in charge, issued a video Monday warning of an increase in pilots “of manned aircraft being hit in the eyes with lasers because people on the ground think they see a drone.”
Jeff Guzzetti, a former FAA investigator, said tracking drones is notoriously tricky because air traffic controllers aren’t required to monitor their movements. However, he said the government’s inability to provide a clear explanation for the sightings has contributed to the confusion.
“There isn’t one coherent, simple message that the government is putting out,” he said, urging authorities to offer a simple explainer of what people are seeing to ease public anxiety.
On social media, drone content has continued getting weirder. Some of the most viewed drone videos on TikTok include disclosures that the content was generated with artificial intelligence - and is therefore fake.
On Facebook, more than 73,000 people have joined a group titled “New Jersey Mystery Drones - let’s solve it” to share reports and theories about the sightings. Unconfirmed explanations have ranged from secret military activities to a mass psychological operation to distract Americans from growing wealth inequality in the wake of the high-profile murder of a health-care CEO in New York this month. Others have pointed to an unsubstantiated theory known as “Project Blue Beam,” which purports that the government will launch a fake alien invasion to clear a path for installing an all-powerful savior figure.
Even some politicians have been caught up in the online fervor. Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R) - who recently lost a campaign for U.S. Senate - posted a video on X last week showing what he said were drones flying over his house. They turned out to be stars in the constellation Orion, according to Washington Post meteorologist Matthew Cappucci.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) posted a long thread on X describing strange lights he saw during a ride-along with local police. A day later, he clarified that after further research, he’d concluded that what he saw was probably an airplane.
“We have a lot of distrust in politics/government right now, and we need federal gov to respect the right for the public to be informed,” Kim said on X over the weekend.
Along the way, clips of alleged sightings and testy exchanges have been boosted by news accounts and influencers, springboarding the story to international audiences. One TikTok clip featuring the CEO of a small drone company speculating about an unconfirmed lost shipment of nuclear warheads was re-shared on X by conservative influencer Kory Yeshua, then by podcast host Joe Rogan to his 14 million followers.
“This is the first video about these drones that has got me genuinely concerned,” Rogan said. His post has received 21 million views.
Some people online have pushed back against drone fears, pointing out that many of the aircraft that people have spotted appear to be flying pre-authorized routes and using lighting specifications mandated by the FAA.
“Re those mysterious UFO drones over New Jersey: What could they possibly be? Let’s see … - long cylindrical tube - 2 big wings in front - 2 small wings in back - blinking lights matching FAA required pattern … I give up. I guess we’ll never know,” wrote Michael Shermer, a former columnist for Scientific American.
Others are left unsure what to think. Kip, a 46-year-old Jersey resident who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his first name - citing fear of retribution if the government proves to be behind the sightings - said he and his friends saw mysterious lights in the sky the Friday after Thanksgiving, which they found “mesmerizing.” It wasn’t until a week or so later, when he started seeing mention of drones on social media, that he got nervous.
Kip said he doesn’t believe everything he sees online. But he also doesn’t trust the media or politicians.
“The moment the federal agencies were like, ‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ I was like, ‘Oh, we should be worried,’” he said.
For now, Kip said, he’ll keep following the thread on social media - and waiting for real answers.
“Honestly, I’m hoping it’s aliens and that they come and get me,” he said. “Like, please: Get me the hell out of here.”
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Lori Aratani in Washington contributed to this report.