Russian government uses game image to accuse US of ISIS partnership
Everyone is already aware of the "cold cyberwar" in full swing between the United States and Russia - including interference with the US elections, accusations of former Yahoo! and hundreds of fake accounts used by Russians to spread fake news. And the conflict gets another curious episode on the morning of Tuesday (14): the official website of the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense shared a tweet with an image of a game to accuse the United States of partnering with Islamic State terrorists (ISIS) in Syria.
@Mod_russia posted in Russian, English and Arabic details about what drone images would look like. "The Ministry of Defense shows irrefutable evidence that the United States is currently providing cover for ISIS fighting units to recover, redeploy, and use them to advance US interests in the Middle East."
But the images used were from the AC-130 Gunship Simulator game, a work by Byte Conveyor Studios praised for realism and under development for Android and iOS since 2015. Noting the gaffe, the Russian government agency erased the messages, but not before users catch what happened.
Look at the app trailer:
US / ISIS group “strike plans”
Below are descriptions of US and Islamic State military actions, illustrated with screenshots of the title for tablets and smartphones. In the former, Russia specifies location and date. “The ISIS train leaving Abu-Kamal near the Iraq-Syria border.”
User Christiaan Tribert acknowledged the game and then commented on the "news" published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which had already been shared by several users on Twitter.
Today, in video games presented as real combat footage: "AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron" (for mobile, ffs). HT @ArtWendeley. pic.twitter.com/Xex7JsEa2E
- Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) November 5, 2017
Another fake news unmasked on social media was that of a drone that would have spotted yet another US / ISIS vehicle queue in Abu Kamal. The Conflict Intelligence Team has revealed that the image actually comes from a 2016 video aired by Russia Today. Originally, the recording showed an Iraqi Air Force bombing of ISIS near Fallujah.
Another believed @mod_russia drone image accusing US of cooperating with IS was taken from a June 2016 Iraqi MoD video showing Iraqi Air Force bombing IS near Fallujah https://t.co/ybRbuAxA6w
- CIT (@CITeam_en) November 14, 2017
(via @ uckuduk1) pic.twitter.com/MtzjqAAStW
After the exposure of the trollings, the messages were deleted from social networks, both on Facebook and Twitter. But they can wait for more cases like this, as this cyberwar is far from over.
