Video Game Footage Passed Off as US Forces Killing Terrorists

A viral video on social media is being shared with a claim that it shows US soldiers killing terrorists.

A viral video on social media is being shared with a claim that it shows US forces killing terrorists.

(Photo altered by The Quint)

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CLAIM

A video on social media is being shared with a claim that it shows the US Army killing terrorists from a distance of at least 2 kilometres.

The video is being massively circulated on Facebook and Twitter with similar claims.

An archived version of the video can be seen here. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Screenshot)

An archived version of the tweet can be seen here. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Screenshot)

An archived version of the tweet can be seen here. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Screenshot)

TRUE OR FALSE?

The Quint was able to confirm that the video is not real. The footage has been taken from a video game and is being shared with a misleading claim.

WHAT WE FOUND

A careful look at the video shows video game-like instructions popping up in the very first second. The instruction reads, “Move W to zoom in and S to zoom out,” referring to keyboard shortcuts. Similar instructions appear multiple times in the video.

(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Screenshot)

Further, on conducting a reverse search, we were directed to similar videos which had been posted by various gaming websites, suggesting that this is footage taken from a video game by the name ‘Medal of Honor’ released in 2010.

Taking a cue from there, we carried out a keyword search using ‘Medal of Honor’ and ‘2010’ following which we were directed to a teaser of the game released by Electronic Arts, an American video game company. ‘Medal of Honor’ is a series of first-person shooter video games developed by the company.

Similar visuals, as seen in the video in circulation, could be seen in the teaser – as well as the videos uploaded by the gaming websites. Therefore, the video in circulation is being shared with a false claim.

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