War in Ukraine: With “Counter-Strice” against Face News

Since the beginning of the war to prevent free information, the Russian government has blocked 500 websites. Among them are many news portals, such as Deutsche Welle or BBC, human rights websites, as well as social networks such as Instagram or Soundculod. Therefore, to inform the Russian population of the Russian war against Ukraine requires creative solutions. In the early weeks of the war, googles or value portals such as the work of Tripady were used. Where instead of giving advice about the best barber in the neighborhood or the restaurant to go, information about the Russian invasion was given until the American firm banned it.

Finnish newspaper “Helsingin Sanomat” has now programmed a Map, a map for the world's favorite computer game “Cunter Strike: Global Offensive”, Russia's game of about four million followers. Map, the map is called in multiplayer games one level - the place on which the game develops. In online tactical rifle, Online-Slooter, players and players fight against each other as if they were terrorists and units fighting terrorists. The Finnish newspaper built a Slavic town for this game and called the map “de voyna”. “Voyna” is a Russian word and means war. A word Russian media are not allowed to use. And who uses it comes into prison.

Online Games have not been blocked in Russia so far

It is no coincidence that the map has that name, says Antero Mukka, editor-in-chief of <x0Helsingin Sanomat”. Since the beginning of the war, the newspaper has informed about developments and has published news in Russian on its website. Even “Helsingin Sanomat” has long been banned in Russia and the website has been blocked.

At the end of last year, we started discussing what might be the next step we're taking. Suddenly, we came to realize that online games have not been banned in Russia. And since the game Conunter-Strice is very popular in Russia.” The newspaper's directors thus engaged professional designers, who created a map within six months but sought to remain anonymous to protect themselves.

The established Map was published on May 3rd, the international press freedom day. Players and players fight in streets surrounded by gray prefabricated palaces -- among them some trees and cars left out. The mention of unrecognized flame, which exists in many Russian cities, stands in the eye. In a virtual basement shown by the memorial and a burning car, there is a secret room. There players and players find news in Russian for the war in Ukraine, news gathered by Finnish war reporters. News in the virtual basement informs with lyrics and photographs of the massacre in Butcha, about a father child whose mother-in-law and mother-in-law were killed in Odessa by a Russian cruise missile when he was out to buy and 70 thousand Russian soldiers.

Witness stories reveal war News

For those engaged in this work, it was important to create an opportunity to learn about war from different perspectives. We also want to show what they saw with their own eyes and document our reporters and photographers in Ukraine.” The brutality of war must be made clear, and truth must come to light.

Russia, by all means, claims that the massacre of Butchas and Irpins has been fabricated and that reports of them are Face News. We want to tell the Russians that unfortunately the reports about them are true. ”

Map is evidence that in a modern society and in a digitized world it is difficult to isolate a society, says Antero Mukka. Of course this is like a drop of water on the hot stone. However, we want to make our contribution.” It is very important for the editorial work of the Finnish newspaper to help the independent Russian media.

We also think there are people in Russia who are willing to take a different stand, to support free world efforts, to keep Ukraine independent. ”

It is obvious that war is not supported by the entire Russian population, says Antero Mukka. To combat state media propaganda, we think very important is to give Russians reliable information about the events of Ukraine. They too have the right to know what happens there so that they can make their decision about how they want to have their place of living. ”

In addition, among the four million players of “Corporation-Strice” are many young men who are directly involved in the war. Because many of them are in the age of military service and may be called by the Russian army and may even lose their lives in war.

Video games have large target groups 

For games to be able to bypass censorship, it rarely happens, but it is not new. In 2022, nongovernmental organisations “Reporters without Borders” fighting worldwide for press freedom created the “Minecraft”, “Uncired Library” (sq. The unscheduled library). The various rooms are dedicated to a country, respectively, among Russia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, and receive journalistic texts in English and the country's language, where there are censorship and authoritarian politics. Russian journalist Yulia Berezovskaia had said at the time of this project that the only way to combat censorship is to resell what censorships and spread further.” A sentence that applies today.

Antero Mukka does not show how often Map has been fired and played so far with news censorship from Russia. But it's got a lot of attention in Russia and it's spread out in the telegram channels.

Censura can be trampled on many digital channels

It is possible that in the future we will experience more often that games will be used to violate government censorship. But Antero Mukka points out that the games are just one of the channels for information distribution. In the digital world, there are many opportunities to break the structure and provide important information.

To save the blocking of web pages, people can choose, for example, to log on via VPN, “Virtual Private Network”. A VPN login on the Internet hides the site of Internet users, so websites blocked in Russia can be searched and removed again.

There are some players who criticise the preferred forum among players, Reddit, the arrogance of Western states. Everyone can be freely informed and need no help from the West. Antero Mukka thinks otherwise. “Everyone sees this thing differently” Any possibility, however small, to save the closed world of censorship is important, he says. “There are many intelligent people in Russia who understand what is happening. We do not want to be arrogant or teach them something they know. We just want to create an opportunity to get information and keep the information channels open.” / DW