LONDON: Video game content has been miscaptioned online as genuine footage of Russian fighter jets flying alongside an American reconnaissance aircraft. The clip, depicting three Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets and a Lockheed SR-71, was shared on Facebook with the caption: “Two Russian Su-27 jets intercepted and drove away a USAF SR-71 Blackbird that was conducting surveillance over Russian airspace earlier.”
However, the footage comes from Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS), a well-known digital combat flight simulation game, according to the video’s creator, Reuters News agency reported. The original, uncropped footage was posted on YouTube by the user “iceman_fox1,” and includes “Created with DCS” in the description. The account owner confirmed via email to Reuters that all his content is digital and marked as being created with Digital Combat Simulator in each video description.
The account owner also mentioned that it is common for their simulation videos to be shared on social media as real events without proper attribution. Reuters News agency has previously reported on other instances where such footage was misrepresented on social media as real air combat scenes or unidentified flying objects.
Verdict: The video is miscaptioned. It was created using a flight simulator video game and does not depict real-life events.
