In August 2023, reports appeared that French journalists were discussing the Ukrainians’ demand to ban the famous game, since it was created in the USSR and allegedly creates a positive image of Russia. We checked the viral video for accuracy.
The 31-second video began circulating in early August. For example, this is how they commented on him in the Telegram channel Voblya (152,000 views at the time of writing this analysis): “The French are seriously discussing whether the Tetris game should be “cancelled” at the request of the Ukrainians... The Ukrainians saw Russian propaganda in the popularity of Tetris. And they believe that it urgently needs to be abolished, because Tetris was created by a Soviet citizen, and anyone who plays Tetris supports Russia.” Channel TG Team Russia (55,000) added that the demand to ban the game is another manifestation of “Ukrainian bingo - what else can we cancel Russian.”
Similar publications appeared in the TV and radio host’s channel Armen Gasparyan (79,000 views), "DPR 🅉 info 🇷🇺"(45,000), "Summary" (17,000) and "Shaman Rahu"(3300), as well as on VKontakte (examples here, here And here), "Odnoklassniki" (here, here And here) And "Zene"
The viral post is a video allegedly created by the French publication 20 minutes - its logo is located in the upper right part of the post. In the video, against the background of various frames, inscriptions appear that make up the following text:
Does Tetris create a positive image of Russia?
The Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation demands that the game Tetris be banned because Tetris was created by Soviet programmer Alexei Pajitnov in 1984. Ukrainians are confident that by buying this game, users will have a positive impact on the image of Russia in the world. At the same time, they are also financing Russian aggression against Ukraine. Over the entire history of the game, more than 43 million copies have been sold, and Nintendo has earned about $3 billion. In 2023, the Tetris movie was released on Apple TV+, which increased user interest in the Tetris game.
“Verified” could not find this video or its mention on any official website French newspaper, nor on its media resources, including verified accounts in X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, as well as on YouTube And Dailymotion. In addition, there is no demand to ban Tetris website and in social networks Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation (CPD). “Verified” asked 20 minutes and the Center for Comments, but did not receive any responses at the time of publication of this analysis.
Although at first glance the video does indeed visually resemble the style of the original 20 minutes videos, we found technical inconsistencies in it. For example, the overlaid text there is written in different fonts, sometimes even in the same sentence. However, none of these fonts correspond to those used in the actual publications of the French edition. The differences are most clearly visible, for example, in the letters a, e and g, as well as numbers.
In addition, the fake video incorrectly stated the number of Tetris copies sold. It uses a screenshot of the video “Best Selling Video Games of All Time from 1989 to 2019” from the YouTube channel Data Is Beautiful, where given chronology of sales on PCs and game consoles excluding mobile applications. According to the calculations of the author of the video, by the third quarter of 2019, the sold-out circulation of Tetris amounted to almost 60 million copies, and more than 43 million was for the Wii Fit game - this number can be seen in the background of the fake video. On the official Tetris website approved, that more than 520 million copies of the game were sold worldwide without specifying platforms.
The very statement that Tetris buyers are sponsoring Russian aggression against Ukraine sounds strange. In 1984 the game really created Soviet programmer Alexey Pajitnov, but later he moved live in the USA and in 1996 became co-founder of the American company The Tetris Company. By words Pajitnov, it is his company that decides who to issue a license for the game. Moreover, back in March 2022, he condemned full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine:
I am addressing you, my friends and colleagues. The dirty, bloody war that is currently going on in Ukraine is so terrible that no one can stay away. The soulless, crazy dictator who started this evil is a war criminal and will be stopped and convicted. It is very sad and shameful that most people in Russia still do not understand this. I am sure that Putin and his hated regime will fall in Ukraine and, I hope, a normal peaceful way of life will be restored in Russia.
Once again, we found the earliest publication with a fake that “Verified” was able to track in the Telegram channel “Before everyone else. Well almost. Special operation" There, a post with a video was posted on August 7, 2023 at 10:00 Moscow time and received almost 12,000 views. This channel is one of the record holders for spreading fakes, it mentioned in about 70 of our analyses.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: screenshot video World of Longplays
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