Fake war in Ukraine clips from video games mislead millions on social media

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Fake war in Ukraine clips from video games mislead millions on social media  Videos allegedly showing Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb — which was carried out by the Ukrainian Security Service on 1 June — have been shared widely online.   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/06/10/fake-war-in-ukraine-clips-from-video-games-mislead-millions-on-social-media  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00Video Game Footage or War Scenes

00:06Videos purporting to show Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb, which was carried out by Ukraine's

00:10security service on the 1st of June, have been spreading across social media. While

00:14many of the clips do not bear proof they show authentic footage of the operation, they have

00:19racked up hundreds of thousands of views across social media platforms. By conducting a reverse

00:24image search, EuroVerify found that a number of clips have been misleadingly captioned

00:28and taken out of context.

00:30EuroVerify was able to match multiple videos posted on social media with this video posted

00:35by this YouTube account. The account's videos boast misleading titles which could suggest

00:40it is posting genuine war footage. But checking the video's captions reveals that the videos

00:45are ARMA 3 footage, not real news.

00:48EuroVerify contacted the game's developers, Bohemia Interactive, who confirmed that these

00:53videos were created using a modded ARMA 3 game. The developer also told EuroVerify that

01:00the vast majority of videos on this account, which boasts almost 70,000 followers, were

01:05from ARMA 3.

01:07Video game modding is a popular activity for gamers whereby they customise a game's features

01:12or visuals. There are endless YouTube channels and social media accounts who share this kind

01:17of content, which can be mistaken for real life war. This can lead footage to be taken out

01:21of context when it is not clearly branded as a game.

01:25Like other developers, Bohemia Interactive has repeatedly stated that it does not agree

01:29with its products being used as war propaganda.

01:33Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there has been an increase in video

01:37games contributing to misinformation, as well as being taken out of context to be portrayed

01:43as war footage. These video clips have also been taken out of context to illustrate the

01:47war between Israel and Hamas, as well as the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.

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