Somebody used spoofed ADSB signals to raster the meme of JD Vance

Most planes broadcast their position using ADS-B, and some websites collect these signals and visualize them so you can track flight paths. Somebody broadcast a fake flight path that draws a picture of JD Vance on these sites: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=adfdf9&lat=26.678&lon=-...

Re: Somebody used spoofed ADSB signals to raster the meme of JD Vance

#8

Post by HNisCIS » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 10:17 PM UTC

sammy2255 wrote: post #2

This has gotta be some sort of federal crime

ADSB sites aren't any sort of official thing. You can send whatever data you want to them. Just because it's there doesn't mean it ever went over the air as an ADSB broadcast.

Re: Somebody used spoofed ADSB signals to raster the meme of JD Vance

#9

Post by TimorousBestie » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 10:17 PM UTC

sammy2255 wrote: post #2

This has gotta be some sort of federal crime

An interesting question.

Assuming the FAA has the authority to enforce ADSB requirements (an open question post-Chevron), I can’t find any regulation saying non-aircrafts cannot transmit ADSB. Only ones saying aircrafts in certain categories must.

There’s probably some non-interference requirement somewhere (FCC spectrum licensing perhaps), but I’m not seeing it immediately.

All this is in the hypothetical that RF was transmitted, which as others point out it probably wasn’t.

Re: Somebody used spoofed ADSB signals to raster the meme of JD Vance

#10

Post by pear01 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 10:19 PM UTC

sammy2255 wrote: post #2

This has gotta be some sort of federal crime

I believe this was "spoofed" only in the sense that a particular provider/online platform accepted data via an API that was abused to draw this on that platform only. Searching around it seems it was not found if you looked on other platforms, so it might not even have been a crime. I believe they didn't emit any real "signals" just took advantage of an API that should probably be better secured.