By: Emincan Yüksel
March 25 2024
No, Buckingham Palace did not recently fly the Union Flag at half-mast
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Screenshot of a post claiming Buckingham Palace flew the Union Flag and half-mast in March, 2024. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The Union Flag was not flown at half-mast over Buckingham Palace last week. The video is from September 2022, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Claim ID fd73f73c
Context
A video circulating on social media falsely claims that Buckingham Palace flew the Union Flag amid health concerns regarding King Charles III and Princess Kate Middleton.
A Facebook post from March 18, 2024, reads, "BREAKING; BUCKINGHAM PALACE FLYING FLAG AT HALF MAST. WHAT’S GOING ON?"
According to the College of Arms, the Union Flag flown at half-mast signifies "the death of a member or near relative of the Royal Family or the funeral of members of the Royal Family."
However, the video was taken in September 2022, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
In fact
A reverse search of keyframes from the video shows that the video is from September 2022, when the Union Flag was flown at half-mast over Buckingham Palace in the days following Queen Elizabeth II's death on September 8, 2022. This indicates that the video is not related to the recent claims.
The U.K. government website provides updates and instructions for half-masting flags. Instructions for half-masting were most recently issued to mark the death of President of Namibia, Hage Geingob on February 4, 2024.
The verdict
The video showing the Union Flag flown at half-mast over Buckingham Palace was taken in September 2022, following Queen Elizabeth II's death. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.