Shocking Ukraine invasion clip is actually from a video game

It's not the first time the game has been mistaken for real-world footage

Widely-shared footage claiming to be of the Ukraine invasion is actually from a video game, it has emerged. Some of the most-viewed clips on Facebook's gaming channel have been claiming to show military action in Ukraine, racking up more than 110,00 views and 25,000 shares, Bloomberg reports. However they were in fact just footage of the realistic tactical shooter game, ArmA III. One of the most-viewed clips was also shared on Twitter, with the caption: “Ukraine fires missiles to intercept Russian aircraft’s artillery fire”. This tweet was eventually taken down - but not before it got 11,000 likes and almost 2,000 retweets, according to Kotaku. https://twitter.com/sadaplays/status/1496831876652322817 It's not the first time that ArmA III has been confused with real-world events either. Last year, Reuters found that footage shared online purportedly showing Israel's defense system shooting at helicopters and planes was in fact from ArmA III. A few months later, a number of Indian news outlets used footage from the game as evidence that the Pakistan Air Force was helping the Taliban fight Afghan resistance. https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1434830877045886978?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1434830877045886978%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gamingbible.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fgames-pc-news-outlets-use-footage-of-arma-3-as-evidence-of-afghanistan-strike-20210908 This is once again a useful reminder that as footage is shared on social media, you should always double check its source and whether it has been verified. Threads such as this one from USA Today's Daniel Funke list the fake footage being shared online. https://twitter.com/dpfunke/status/1496928811753132033 Opportunists are always looking to exploit the chaos in a crisis for quick engagement and shares, and will often post fake footage to do this. Don't be fooled. Related links:

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