Users mistake video game clips for real Israeli war footage on social media

A misleadingly captioned Arma 3 video shared on X now sports a “context” note on its real origins. (credit: X / Arma 3)

Footage from the 2013 game Arma 3 is spreading virally across multiple social media sites, presented as real spectator video of ongoing military actions between Israelis and Palestinians. The misleading videos are part of a wave of war disinformation that has run rampant across social media and highlights just how realistic the heavily modded game can appear at a glance.

Examples of this trend are not hard to come by. A 22-second clip on X garnered over 10.4 million views as footage of “Israeli helicopters getting smashed.” But the clip was originally posted as a YouTube short on October 3, where it was correctly labeled as Arma footage. That didn’t stop that same clip from spreading widely among Indian and Turkish Facebook users.

Another X video with millions of views shows Arma 3 footage of a shoulder-mounted rocket launched at a helicopter, labeled as “Hamas fighters shooting down Israel war helicopter in Gaza.” X-user Shayan Sardarizadeh has debunked that footage as well as other examples of game footage that have been taken down as of press time.

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Author: Kyle Orland. [Source Link (*), Ars Technica – All content]

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