Lies about Stalker 2 are reportedly being spread and you can guess who’s behind it

All part of the information war

GSC Game World

A video bearing the watermark of tech magazine Wired is making the rounds on social media, its subtitles claiming that Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl contains a hidden program used by the army of Ukraine to locate young men for conscription purposes – the issue is, Wired never produced a video like this and there is not a shred of evidence for such hidden code existing in Stalker 2, as reported by 404 Media.

The outlet, which has kept a close eye on similar cases, identified the fake video as coming from the same source of disinformation that has been responsible for similar campaigns in the past months – it’s part of a Russian operation to continuously spread lies and weaken people’s trust in pretty much anything they read or watch. Its ultimate aim is to further divide targeted societies and paralyze their political systems.

It’s a well-documented information warfare approach developed by the Russians and has been allowed to cause much harm thanks to the spread of social media and a lack of moderation.

According to 404 Media, the fake video about Stalker 2 has been spread on Telegram, which is a widely used social media app in Eastern Europe, and sent directly to journalists.

Stalker 2 is a natural target for such a disinformation campaign, being developed by Ukrainian studio GSC Game World and taking place in Ukraine. GSC Game World has been outspoken regarding its support for Ukraine’s government and armed forces in their defense of the country with stories about members of the development team being killed on the frontlines resonating worldwide.

• Read more: “People are still seeing health consequences” Stalker 2’s devs open up on the politics of the game

Last year, Ukraine’s government asked digital distributors like Valve, Sony, and Microsoft to take the Russian-developed game Atomic Heart off their stores in Ukraine, calling it a “brand new level of Russian digital propaganda.” Atomic Heart had also been accused of harvesting user data and sharing it with the Russian government, so one can see why this particular topic may have been chosen for the fake video.