The Las Vegas Sphere is known for immersive concert experiences, but social media users are claiming it’s now being used to broadcast political messages.
A March 16 Facebook post showed a photo of the Sphere displaying a derogatory message to former President Donald Trump: “F— Trump.”
The photo showed the text in giant blue letters on a white background, encircled by a red stripe with white stars that was reminiscent of the American flag. Text on the photo read, “The Sphere in Vegas is so awesome!”
(Screengrab from Facebook)
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Sphere Entertainment Co. told PolitiFact that this image is not real and that it was digitally altered.
We also found no evidence this message was shown on the Las Vegas Sphere. The image doesn’t appear in the Las Vegas Review Journal’s photo gallery of the Sphere’s displays, and we found no news articles about this supposed insult to Trump.
PolitiFact and other fact-checking news outlets have debunked similar fake images of the Sphere that claimed to show crude messages about Trump and President Joe Biden. We don’t know who created this fake image, although a TikTok filter lets users display faces, designs and messages on the Sphere.
We rate the claim that the Sphere displayed a derogatory message directed at Trump False.