Editor’s Note: Retraction

October 20, 2026

On Oct. 19, the Oregon Journalism Project published a story about a video of an upside-down American flag displayed behind Washington County Commissioner Nafisa Fai at an Oct. 10 event in Minneapolis. The headline and story described the video as a “deepfake” that was circulated by right-wing social media accounts to brand Fai, a Somali immigrant, as un-American.

On Oct. 16, OJP interviewed Fai, who is running for Washington County chair. A Fai campaign supporter then provided a different video of the event to OJP that showed the flag right side up.

After publication, readers raised questions about the conflicting images. OJP then obtained new images that showed the flag at the Minneapolis event had in fact been upside down. For that reason, we have unpublished the original story. OJP regrets the error.