Indian news channel uses Arma 3 gameplay footage to claim Pakistan bombed Afghanistan
By Joseph Knoop 2 days ago
Bohemia Interactive says it's not the first time its game has been used in erroneous reports.
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Above: not-real videogame planes. (Image credit: Bohemia Interactive)
In a bizarre development, some Indian news broadcasts claimed that the Pakistani airforce attacked the Panjshir valley, an Afghanistan mountain province home to about 170,000 people, which is currently the last major holdout of anti-Taliban forces.
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The only problem? The footage used to report the supposedly pro-Taliban airforce attack came from the popular military simulation game Arma 3.
The footage first appeared on Indian news channels including Republic TV, Times Now Navbharat, Zee Hindustan, and TV9 Bharatvarsh. The original video was credited to a source called "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.
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In fact, the footage came from this January Arma 3 video from the YouTube channel Compared Comparison, which has now been viewed 23 million times. The gameplay shows 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 jet.
