On 2 March 2026, a politically charged claim spread across Instagram, TikTok, Threads and X alleging that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered flags on New York City buildings to be lowered to half-mast in mourning for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The posts followed major US–Israeli combat operations on Iran that began on February 28, 2026. Iranian state media confirmed Khamenei’s death on March 1, 2026, with the claim following right after the news of his death.

However, several clues point to the fact that this flag-lowering claim might not be true. When we looked on the official NYC311 flag-status page – where the city posts updates – flags were reported to be at “full staff”. New York State’s Office of General Services likewise listed flags on state government buildings as “currently at full staff.”

The last documented instruction to lower flags in New York came from Governor Kathy Hochul on February 18 to honour the life of Former Representative Richard L. Ottinger, who passed away on Monday, February 16.

So where did the claim come from? The video driving the narrative originated from BSN Network, whose watermark could be seen on all the videos posted on social media. BSN describes itself as satire/comedy in its page descriptions, and its Facebook banner includes a blunt disclaimer: “Fake but funny. News you can never trust.” The problem is that the captions on the posts circulating most widely did not clearly signal satire, and comment threads showed many viewers interpreted the content as real.

Mamdani’s own public comments during the escalation further point to the viral claim being false. On his official X account, he criticised the US and Israeli strikes as a “catastrophic escalation,”, but he did not focus on praising Iran’s leadership or mourning Khamenei; instead, he addressed safety and reassurance for Iranians living in New York.

In summary, there is no evidence available that New York City has lowered flags to mark Khamenei’s death and the claim appears to have originated from a satire/comedy website, BSN Network. We rate the claim as false. Black Dot Research had previously debunked claims related to Mamdani “forcing” school students to learn Arabic numerals and having his Instagram account suspended for being “too socialist”.