Military troops battling through burning streets, missiles destroying fighter jets and drones attacking tanks. These graphic and dramatic visuals depict real-life combat, however, in reality, they are only clips from a video game.
The footage from the war-themed Arma 3 video game is reportedly being marked “live” or “breaking news” and has been used repeatedly in recent months in fake videos about the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Czech-developed video game promises “true combat gameplay in a massive military sandbox” and allows players to create various battlefield scenarios using aircraft, tanks and a host of weapons.
Often, players upload hours of gaming footage on platforms such as YouTube and researchers blame its easy availability for its misuse.
Researchers have noted that the frequency with which these gaming footages are mistaken as real, even by some media broadcasters, and shared as authentic news on social media highlights its serious potential to spread misinformation.
Industry pundits such as Claire Wardle, the co-director of the Information Futures Lab at Brown University, have cautioned people and journalists in particular against such videos.
She noted that with video games becoming more sophisticated due to CGI (computer-generated imagery), it’s easier to fool people.
That’s why, according to Wardle, it is important for viewers to “know how to verify imagery, including looking at metadata, so that these mistakes don’t get made, especially by newsrooms.”
In a statement, a representative of the game’s creator Bohemia Interactive urged users to use gaming footage responsibly, refrain from using clickbait video titles and clearly state that it was derived from a video game.
“While it’s flattering that Arma 3 simulates modern war conflicts in such a realistic way, we are certainly not pleased that it can be mistaken for real-life combat footage and used as war propaganda,” the statement said.
