Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
A video of a plane being shot down by an on-ground ‘weapons system’ is being shared as Armenian defence shooting down an Azerbaijani MiG-25 in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The video, however, is an old simulation of a fighter jet in action in the video game, ARMA 3.
CLAIM
The video was shared with the claim, “An Azerbaijani MiG-25 was shot down from the Armenian defenses by the Shilka weapon. In Nagorny Karabakh, the Azerbaijani pilot did more than one maneuver to strike the ground defenses of the Armenian air defense forces ... a fierce war. (sic)”
Hindi news channel TV9 Bharatvarsh also ran a bulletin on 9 October with the viral video, and a panel of experts.
The video is also viral on Facebook.
A post by a page called, ‘Federal Government Employees’ had amassed over 71,000 views at the time of writing this article.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The video is actually a video game simulation and not from the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict, as claimed.
A reverse image search on Yandex, of keyframes from the video, led us to a YouTube video with the caption, ‘Phalanx CIWS Shoots Down Tomahawk Cruise Missile.’
A keyword search of the same led us to similar YouTube videos, which stated that they were not real, but a simulation from the game ARMA 3.
Amid the YouTube recommendations for similar videos, we found the original video uploaded by a Japanese channel, with the caption, “A-10 Thunderbolt Warthog Thunderbolt CRAM Sius ARMA3 Arma 3 (sic).”
The video was uploaded on 22 August 2020, and hence, could not have been of a recent attack on Armenia.
Evidently, a video game simulation has been falsely shared by social media users and reported by TV9 Bharatvarsh as Armenia shooting down an Azerbaijani fighter jet.
(With inputs from SM HoaxSlayer)
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