It’s crazy to think that there are still places out there where the media is so controlled that it’s almost impossible to get any information outside of where you stay. Ok, I mean, I know the media is somewhat controlled, this very article is only allowed to be published once my AI Overlord deems it so, but at least I can go and find my own information and make my own opinion based on that information.
Some clever journalists in Finland found a loophole in Russian media control and decided to use it to show Russians exactly what’s going on in the war against Ukraine. Not the information that they get from their own news outlets.
The Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, figured out that games aren’t as restricted as much as the media, and Counter-Strike in particular has around 4 million players in Russia. That is a big reader base to push this specific information to, and so they did.
Helsingin Sanomat designed a Counter Strike map dubbed ‘de_vonya’, which means War in Russian. The map represents a Slavic city that has been demolished by war, and when a player dies and enters spectator mode, they can enter a secret room on the map, which has a full-view display of the on-goings between Russia and Ukraine.
The hidden room shows newspaper headlines, in Russian, from media outlets that are not restricted by Russian media control. There is a map that displays locations that have been attacked by Russian soldiers, stories of Ukrainian civilians affected by these attacks and even a table listing the number of casualties.
A smart and sneaky play by the Fins at getting the news out to the Russian masses, hopefully. Where there is a will, there is a way.
