false flag

noun

plural false flags

1

: a hostile or harmful action (such as an attack) that is designed to look like it was perpetrated by someone other than the person or group responsible for it

In case you didn't know, a false flag is an incident that is designed to deceive people into thinking it was actually carried out by someone else.

—Nick Giambruno

… ex-House of Commons clerk Eliot Wilson argues in an article for the paper that "it does not take the mind of a conspiracy theorist" to imagine that Downing Street may have been behind what now appears to have been a false flag.

—Joe Evans

—often used before another noun

a false flag operation

false flag attacks

The false flag conspiracy theory circulated widely after the riot …

—Ted Sickinger

2

: a deliberate misrepresentation of motives or identity

Maybe more troublesome is the fact that a small percentage of sources were recruited under false flags or based on coercion.

—Nel Marais

also : something used to misrepresent motives or identity

The Russian hackers had attempted to blame North Korea, China and other adversaries as the culprit of those assaults through a series of false flags implanted in the malware that were designed to throw investigators off track.

—Cynthia Brumfield

"Craft" is a false flag, a depoliticization of art and thus an undermining of art's ability to change or even to question the status quo.

—Jonathan Dee

3

: a flag used to disguise the identity of something (such as a ship)

Examples of false flag in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This discovery is smartly crosscut with Daryl’s mission, which quickly proves to be a false flag. —Ben Rosenstock, Vulture, 6 Oct. 2024

Some voices on the left quickly proclaimed the shooting to be a false flag concocted by Trump, while some Trump supporters suggested the Secret Service intentionally failed to protect Trump on the White House’s orders. —Ali Swenson, Twin Cities, 14 July 2024

Here’s a look at the claims that surfaced online following the shooting: Claims of an inside job or false flag are unsubstantiated Many of the more specious claims that surfaced immediately after the shooting sought to blame Trump or his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, for the attack. —Ali Swenson, Twin Cities, 14 July 2024

Other scenarios in our report involve such things as insider threats, AI vulnerabilities, false flag attacks, ecoterrorism, ransomware during a launch, as well as more distant scenarios about asteroid mining, off-world colonies and space pirates. —Patrick Lin, Professor Of Philosophy, Discover Magazine, 6 July 2024

Read more Claim: Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was a false flag Our rating: False Footage, photos and statements by officials prove the bridge's collapse was caused by a cargo ship striking it. —Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2024

The greatest danger to our democracy, enlightenment and justice is in schools that indoctrinate under the false flag of education. —Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 3 Mar. 2024

It was not demolished as part of a false flag operation. —Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY, 29 Mar. 2024

Pyongyang uses intermediaries and false flags to disguise its vessels. —Jonathan Corrado, Foreign Affairs, 15 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1569, in the meaning defined at sense 2