There’s been a lot of buzz about swarms of drones over New Jersey. The government’s initial response was that they pose no threat and they don’t belong to our military or any foreign adversaries.

There’s no shortage of conspiracy theories though.

In the last few weeks I’ve seen everything from a US congressman saying he “heard from a reliable source” that they’re coming from an Iranian “mothership” off the east coast, to aliens, to random TikTokers coming up with theories that Trump won’t be sworn in and they’re here to keep in eye in the sky for knee jerk responses that are sure to follow.

The claims about them being UAPs or aliens are the silliest. They do have a lot in common with every photograph or video of every UAP ever taken though: they’re grainy as shit. The clearer images show what looks like a small plane with standard red and green lights on the wings. Lots of them are just barely visible flashing lights in the sky. I’m no aviation expert but they look like planes to me 🤷

The FBI and DHS in a joint statement said “it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space.” - Reuters

I hate to be a buzzkill but this makes the most sense to me. Reality is always so much more boring than sensationalized viral clips circulating social media. Corporate platforms like TikTok and Facebook are misinformation machines and they’re really good at giving this kind of stuff a massive signal boost. Coincidentally, these stories started circulating on TikTok weeks before it started hitting the news.