Arma 3 devs demand gameplay clips stop being used for ‘fake news’ war propaganda

Bohemia Interactive has seen an uptick of clips from Arma 3 incorrectly being portrayed as real-life conflicts in the Russia and Ukraine war.

There is little doubt that as games have gotten more advanced, you could use various parts of some of them to fool an untrained eye into thinking they were real life. However, Arma developer Bohemia Interactive thinks some folks are going too far with its own game. Arma 3 has recently been used in propaganda videos in the Ukraine and Russia conflict and Bohemia Interactive has issued a demand for such fake videos to stop, even as it seeks copyright takedowns on any content of the sort.

Bohemia Interactive shared a statement on the matter recently via its website blog. It was here that the studio shared its knowledge of video clips being used to portray Arma 3 gameplay as if it were real and violent acts from the war. The studio has apparently sought takedowns, copyright strikes, and further actions to remove these videos from the public space.

Arma 3 has been used to simulate a number of military operations, but sometimes videos go as far as to hide that it’s a game and present them as real conflicts.Source: Elite Operator YouTube channel

“These user-made videos have the potential to go viral, and are massively shared by social media users; sometimes even by various mainstream media or official government institutions worldwide,” the statement reads. “The Arma 3 dev team would like to take this opportunity to point out how the general public can distinguish such in-game videos from real-world footage.”

Bohemia points out that Arma 3’s foundation as military open sandbox makes it particularly manipulable for malicious actors to use in propaganda.

“This unique freedom of the Arma 3 platform comes with a downside: videos taken from Arma 3, especially when the game is modified, are quite capable of spreading fake news.”

The blog goes on to share how to distinguish if a video is taken from Arma 3, pointing out various measures editors often use to hide the gaming nature of Arma. It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. Reuters reported earlier this year that a supposed viral video of a drone strike on Russian soldiers, which it turns out was an Arma 3 clip.

One could say this comes with being one of the most highly applauded military sandboxes in gaming, but Bohemia is certainly right to point out the dangers of Arma 3 being used in the ways detailed above.

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.