Internet Sleuths Find Shia LeBeouf’s Anti-Trump Flag AGAIN, Attack It With Flame-Throwing Drone

Shia LeBeouf has been trying, desperately, to outsmart Internet sleuths since he began his “He Will Not Divide Us” project last year at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York — but months later, he still can’t outsmart his opposition in what has become an international game of “Capture The Flag.”

LeBeouf’s project once featured a 24 web cam, placed on a wall in the middle of the words, “he will not divide us” (the “he” refers to now-President Donald Trump). Shockingly, LeBeouf failed to forsee that people might use the webcam for other purposes, and after he was attacked right off camera, LeBeouf settled on a different idea: he’s broadcast a flag, bearing the words “He Will Not Divide Us,” on camera for 24 hours a day.

It worked for a total of three days, before Internet sleuths, collaborating on sites like Reddit and 4Chan used cloud patterns and plane movement to find the flag in New Mexico. Then they found it Tennessee, triangulating the flag’s location using weather reports and, more practically, a man driving around honking the horn on his truck until he could be heard on the live cam.

LeBeouf tried to foil the web-based detectives by going international, but the Internet didn’t rest until it found LeBeouf’s anti-Trump flag in the U.K. and dispatched local guerillas to bring it down.

Each time, the sleuths got faster. Each time, LeBeouf promised he would not be defeated.

Last week, the flag appeared online again — because LeBeouf is clearly a glutton for punishment — and it took the Internet less than 24 hours to realize that the flag had been installed above an art gallery in Nantes, France. Feeling obligated to, apparently, send a message, the Internet detectives dispatched a flame-throwing drone to set the flag on fire.

The drone ultimately failed — accidentally deploying its weapon too early and setting itself on fire — but not before giving viewers of LeBeouf’s livestream a brief glimpse of its flaming end. Its operators swear that it will be back. The museum in Nantes definitely says it will continue to fly the flag, which is like basically inviting Reddit to damage your museum.