--- title: Statue Of Liberty Goes Dark: Twitter Speculates description: The power cut was most likely caused by construction work, but the Internet wasn't about to let that get in the way of a good story canonical: https://time.com/4694859/statue-of-liberty-new-york-city-international-womens-day/ author: Zamira Rahim article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-08T11:21:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:43.119Z og:title: Statue Of Liberty Goes Dark: Twitter Speculates og:description: Theories ranged from Russian hacking to a Women's Day protest og:url: https://time.com/4694859/statue-of-liberty-new-york-city-international-womens-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt338c0e08da53caf0/6988bd8286f68e74f76e3c3e/rtx2qwr6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4547 og:image:height: 2558 og:image:alt: The Statue of Liberty is seen on the 130th anniversary of the dedication in New York Harbor og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Statue Of Liberty Goes Dark: Twitter Speculates twitter:description: Theories ranged from Russian hacking to a Women's Day protest twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt338c0e08da53caf0/6988bd8286f68e74f76e3c3e/rtx2qwr6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The 3 Best Conspiracy Theories About the Statue of Liberty Going Dark > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Mar 8, 2017 11:21 AM UTC  The Statue of Liberty is seen on the 130th anniversary of the dedication in New York City, Oct. 28, 2016. The Statue of Liberty is seen on the 130th anniversary of the dedication in New York City, Oct. 28, 2016. Brendan McDermid —Reuters by [Zamira Rahim](https://time.com/author/zamira-rahim/) ## Zamira Rahim Mar 8, 2017 11:21 AM UTC The lights at the Statue of Liberty [ominously went dark for a few hours](http://people.com/human-interest/statue-of-liberty-power-outage/) on Tuesday and the symbolism was too much for the Internet. The National Parks Service [were quick to say in a statement](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39202724) that the “unplanned outage” was most likely caused by some construction work, the BBC reports. But Twitter users weren’t going let a reasonable explanation spoil a good story. Here are some of the best theories online. **The Statue Went On Strike For ‘A Day Without Women’** March 8 is [International Women’s Day](http://time.com/4694254/google-doodle-international-womens-day-2017/?iid=sr-link1) and many people are marking the event by going on strike for ‘A Day Without Women’, in order to illustrate how important women can be. It only seems fair that this extends to the most famous female (statue) in the U.S. > [](https://twitter.com/PeterWMurphy1/status/839389762414784513) > [](https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/839336196862066689) > [](https://twitter.com/Leah%5F%5F%5F%5FJ/status/839343473279057921) **The Statue Was Protesting President Trump’s Travel Ban** President Trump just signed a second executive order [temporarily banning](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/annotated-executive-order-immigration-travel-ban.html?%5Fr=0) some refugees and visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. Lady Liberty is widely thought of as a symbol welcoming immigrants to the U.S. so people were quick to jump on the idea of the power cut as a political protest. A “Refugees Welcome” banner was[ unfurled by activists](http://fortune.com/2017/02/22/refugees-activists-statue-liberty-banner/) at the feet of the statue just a few weeks ago. > [](https://twitter.com/UnplugFox/status/839314949855924224) > [](https://twitter.com/harlotstarlet1/status/839333980814065665) **The Statue Was Hacked By Russia** According to parts of the Internet we’ve[ all been hacked](http://time.com/4656167/russia-hacking-treason-us-election/?iid=sr-link1) by ‘Russia’, so social media users were quick to joke about the lights being infiltrated. At least, we think it was a joke. > [](https://twitter.com/LebroJenkins/status/839369853567815680) > [](https://twitter.com/DameJEMarshall/status/839380230884057088) > [](https://twitter.com/duxcomedy/status/839351321161515009) > [](https://twitter.com/asadkarim1/status/839340613434761216) Despite all the speculation, it looks like it really was just a power cut. 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