Footage from simulation game falsely linked to US president’s trip to Israel
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 31, 2023 at 16:11
- 3 min read
- By Tonye BAKARE, AFP Nigeria
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"How Biden left Israel... most highly protected man on earth," reads a post shared on X, formerly Twitter, on October 20, 2023.
The clip, reposted more than 2,200 times, was shared by Nigerian politician Dele Momodu who has been the subject of a previous AFP Fact Check debunk. It features a one-minute video with a caption reading: "Air Force One seen flying with fighter escort detail".
The claim also appeared in Spanish.
Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border and killed 1,400 people in an unprecedented attack on Israel. Most victims were civilians. At least 240 people, many of them migrant workers, were kidnapped, according to Israeli officials (archived here).
More than 8,000 people, mainly civilians and children, have died in the retaliatory Israeli bombardment, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Biden visited Israel under unusually tight security on October 18, 2023, (archived here).
But the claim that the video showed Biden’s aircraft leaving Israel flanked by warplanes is false.
Digitally created clip
AFP Fact Check traced the video in the claim to a TikTok account called "elpotroliberato" whose name appears in the clip.
While the account has since deleted the clip, a keyword search for “elpotroliberato” on TikTok showed that other accounts had reshared the post with the footage.
Using the InVID-WeVerify video verification tool, AFP Fact Check found that the footage (archived here) was first published on social media on October 18, 2023 -- the same day Biden visited Israel (archived here).
It was published on a YouTube channel called "iceman_fox1", which regularly features "aviation videos".
The clip caption claims that it showed "Air Force One flying today with extensive fighter escort, somewhere in the Middle East". The hashtags #hamas, #iran and #idf” – for Israeli Defense Forces – were included.
Importantly, the caption also stated that the clip was "filmed with Digital Combat Stimulator".
Digital Combat Stimulator (DCS) is a combat simulation game (archived here).
The YouTube channel is listed on DCS’s website as a prominent content creator. The site includes a link to the YouTube channel (archived here).
Contacted by email, the channel’s owner told AFP Fact Check that the clip was digitally created.
"Every video on my channel is made with Digital Combat Simulator," the creator wrote on October 27, 2023. "That is the entire premise of this channel: realistic DCS videos. Even in the bio of my profile, it says these videos are made with DCS."
While the account holder said the hashtags because they were "trending"., the creator criticised people for using content without attribution.
"I do think it is irresponsible when other channels steal my videos and repost them solely for the purpose of convincing people that these videos are real. I have not seen a repost yet where someone gives me credit, and they certainly are not telling people that the video is created digitally."
Since the Israel-Hamas war broke, AFP Fact Check has debunked several claims (including here and here) involving the use of clips from video games to falsely represent what is happening in Israel or Gaza.
The renewed conflict between Israel and Hamas has generated a wave of misinformation online. Follow our coverage here.
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