A Finnish newspaper has hidden information and reports on the war in Ukraine in the computer game Counter-Strike, which is particularly popular in Russia today. As the newspaper “Helsingin Sanomat” announced today, they have found a way to circumvent media censorship in Russia. Around four million people play the tactical multiplayer first-person shooter in Russia.
“While ‘Helsingin Sanomat’ and other foreign independent media outlets are blocked in Russia, online games are not banned for the time being,” Antero Mukka, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, told AFP news agency.
Players can create custom maps that anyone can download and use. “So we built a Slavic town called Wojna, which means war in Russian,” Mukka said.
Reports hidden in virtual building
In the basement of one of the city’s buildings, the technicians of “Helsingin Sanomat” hid a room where players can find reports in Russian made by the newspaper’s war correspondents in Ukraine.
They covered the walls of the digital space with articles and photos documenting events such as the massacres in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Irpin. It is “information that is not available in the Russian state’s propaganda apparatus,” said Mukka.
Since its release on Monday, the map has been downloaded more than two thousand times. “This shows that any attempt to prevent the flow of information and mislead the public is doomed to failure in our modern world,” said the editor-in-chief.
