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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke July 20, 2023

Las Vegas Sphere photo showing crude message to Biden was fabricated

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  • This photo was fabricated.

The forthcoming Sphere venue in Las Vegas is true to its name: It’s a massive spherical structure that will host concerts and shows inside, and it recently started flaunting the power of its outdoor LED screen, transforming into what looked like a giant basketball, and later a blinking eye. 

A recent Facebook post suggests the sphere also displayed a more political message: "F — Biden."

An image in the post appears to show the sphere with the letter F followed by the American flag in place of two letters, and then the letter K above the president’s last name. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat alse news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

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Sphere Entertainment Co. didn’t immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post, but we found no evidence that this message was actually displayed in Sin City. It doesn’t appear in a photo gallery of the sphere’s displays on the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s website, and we didn’t find any news stories reporting that the venue gave the figurative finger to President Joe Biden. 

Rather, the Instagram post appears to be a screenshot of a TikTok filter that lets users put their faces–and more–on the sphere. 

We rate claims the Sphere venue displayed a derogatory message at Biden False.

 

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Las Vegas Sphere photo showing crude message to Biden was fabricated

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