Video of American raising black flag unrelated to Iran war
- Published on May 7, 2026 at 22:40
- 1 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
Iran's Tasnim News Agency is claiming a video shows an American hanging a black US flag outside his home to protest Israel's relationship with the United States amid the war in the Middle East. But the clip is misrepresented; the video is from 2021, with the original TikTok poster saying the action was taken to express dissatisfaction with then-president Joe Biden's administration.
"Americans Protest Israel's Influence by Displaying Black US Flags at Homes," says the May 6, 2026 post. "Americans have begun hanging black US flags outside their homes in protest against Israel's control over their government."
Similar posts cropped up in multiple languages across X and other platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
They spread as the Middle East war sparked by US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei dragged into May, with Washington and Tehran in talks to put a long-term stop to the conflict and reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Polls have shown Americans largely disapprove of the war with Iran.
But the video of a man replacing the American flag outside his home with a black US flag -- an apparent symbol of political discontent -- is outdated.
Reverse image searches traced the video to TikTok, where it was originally posted August 31, 2021 (archived here).
"Today my BF who's an Army Veteran changed the flag on the outside of our house.. #hisbiggestsupporter #blackamericanflag #sosad," the poster, a cosmetologist from Upstate New York, wrote in the video's caption.
The poster wrote in comments under the video that the flag was purchased from Amazon and that the man, whom AFP identified as a then-deputy at a local sheriff's office, hung it outside "because we don't support the current government." At the time, Biden was president.
Another video on the poster's TikTok page shows a large Trump flag on display inside.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Middle East war here.
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