Several misleading reports used ArmA III as footage of events, and even the game’s devs, Bohemia Interactive, claim it!

Several Indian news broadcasts claimed that the Pakistani airforce struck the Panjshir valley, the last resort of the anti-Taliban forces, being home to roughly 170 thousand people. The problem here is that the video used to prove that the pro-Taliban airstrike was made in ArmA III!

Republic TV, Times Now Navbharat, Zee Hindustan, and TV9 Bharatvarsh all used the footage that originated from “Hasti TV” on Facebook, which has since been deleted. These Indian news sources claimed the video showed a military jet attempting a bombing run on Panjshir. The problem is that the video was uploaded in January to YouTube by Compared Comparison with 23 million views at the moment. In it, we see players engaging in a ground-to-air battle between a jet and a vehicle-mounted anti-air turret with tracer rounds seen firing through the sky at the plane.

Bohemia Interactive, the devs of ArmA III, sent a statement to PCGamer. “Strangely, we’ve seen this particular game footage be used several times by certain media outlets in support of their real-life news coverage. We know this because we’ve been previously approached regarding similar occurrences by fact-checkers from organizations such as Agence France-Presse, Check Your Fact, PolitiFact, and Reuters, if I remember correctly. The clip in the [original viral tweet] is so cropped and low-res that I find it hard to compare and say for sure which it is, but I’m confident it is Arma 3 footage,” Bohemia Interactive’s representative said. It might be spliced from two other videos, but the rep is sure about ArmA III nevertheless.

Notice how even Bohemia mentioned Reuters! In May 2021, Reuters debunked claims that Israel’s defence system shot at helicopters and aircraft as the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated. The footage of the alleged skirmish came from similar videos of Arma 3 players engaging in ground-to-air combat gameplay… but it shows how Bohemia Interactive has done an excellent job with its military simulator!

Source: PCGamer

Hello @republic, The ‘exclusive video’ that your team has accessed of Airstrikes at #PanjshirValley is actually from a video game “Arma-3”. 🤦🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🙆🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/TG7dJmvsQ9

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) September 6, 2021