Facepalm: It seems that wherever there is war in the world, there will also be clips of video games that people claim are real footage. Once again, this form of propaganda involves old favorites Arma 3 and War Thunder, with the Middle East conflict helping increase the spread.

Following Israel's surprise airstrikes on Iranian targets on June 13, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps posted a clip of what it claimed was the country's military downing an Israeli jet fighter.

The clip initially appeared on IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency, writes PC Gamer, before it spread across social media and messaging apps, often with the caption, "we shot down an Israeli jet."

As you can no doubt tell from the video, it's not real. It comes from military simulator Arma 3. The game is known for its almost photorealistic graphics, and the clip has fooled plenty of people. It's actually proved so convincing that the Israel Defense Forces had to issue a statement to The Jerusalem Post confirming that "The footage is fake," and "No Israeli aircraft have been downed."

It's not just Arma 3 being used for these purposes. Another video making the rounds, one that's arguably more convincing, claims to show an advanced Israeli F-35 fighter jet being intercepted and destroyed by the defense systems of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army.

The clip is actually from War Thunder. It was made by a fan and posted to YouTube two weeks ago. The description partly reads: "Russia's 9K33 Osa surface-to-air missile system locks onto and destroys an American F/A-18C fighter jet."

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There's a long history of clips from video games being passed off as real footage. One that circulated in October 2022 supposedly showing the Ukrainian military striking Russian Army tanks also turned out to be Arma 3 footage. Part of the same clip was used in a video from 2020 that claimed it was an American anti-aircraft weapon destroying an Iranian missile.

There was also a case in 2018 when Russian TV showed an Arma 3 clip that it claimed was actual footage from the Syrian war (below).

It's not just Arma 3. In 2019, a Pakistani politician was convinced a clip from GTA V showing a plane landing and narrowly missing an oil tanker on the runway was real. He even praised the pilot's "immense skill."

Back in 2016, the Russian government tweeted an image from Command & Conquer to warn of extremists in Syria, though it did add an "image used for illustration purposes only" disclaimer. In 2017, however, the country's MOD said a screengrab of a promotional video for mobile title AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron was "irrefutable evidence" of the US helping ISIS. We've also seen CNN use Fallout 4 to illustrate Russian hacking activities.

The situation got so bad that in 2022, Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive posted a series of tips on how to distinguish real footage from Arma 3 gameplay clips:

Very low resolution

Even dated smartphones have the ability to provide videos in HD quality. Fake videos are usually of much lower quality, and are intentionally pixelated and blurry to hide the fact that they're taken from a video game.

Shaky camera

To add dramatic effect, these videos are often not captured in-game. Authors film a computer screen with the game running in low quality and with an exaggerated camera shake.

Often takes place in the dark / at night

The footage is often dark in order to hide the video game scene's insufficient level of detail.

Mostly without sound

In-game sound effects are often distinguishable from reality.

Doesn't feature people in motion

While the game can simulate the movement of military vehicles relatively realistically, capturing natural looking humans in motion is still very difficult, even for the most modern of games.

Heads Up Display (HUD) elements visible

Sometimes the game's user interfaces, such as weapon selection, ammunition counters, vehicle status, in-game messages, etc. are visible. These commonly appear at the edges or in the corners of the footage.

Unnatural particle effects

Even the most modern games have a problem with naturally depicting explosions, smoke, fire, and dust, as well as how they're affected by environmental conditions. Look for oddly separated cloudlets in particular.

Unrealistic vehicles, uniforms, equipment

People with advanced military equipment knowledge can recognize the use of unrealistic military assets for a given conflict. For instance, in one widely spread fake video, the US air defense system C-RAM shoots down a US A-10 ground attack plane. Units can also display non-authentic insignias, camouflage, etc.