A Finnish newspaper has found a way to circumvent Moscow’s strict censorship: Helsingin Sanomat uses the popular video game Counter Strike to spread news in Russian in the neighboring country.
Since the beginning of the invasion war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has maintained strict censorship, blocking websites of Western and independent domestic news portals, suppressing free news coverage and allowing only state-regulated propaganda. This makes it difficult for the Russian people to get independent news about the war.
The website of the newspaper “Helsingin Sanomat” has also been affected by the blockade by the Moscow authorities and is not accessible in Russia. But the newspaper has found a new, unusual channel to inform interested readers – but they must be fans of the shooter classic “Counter Strike”. After all, four million gamers play it in Russia, especially in the metropolises of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Messages are hidden in the basement in virtual building
“While ‘Helsingin Sanomat’ and other foreign independent media are being blocked in Russia, online gaming is not banned for the time being,” said Antero Mukka, editor-in-chief of the Finnish newspaper. You can create custom maps in the shooting game. “So we built a Slavic city called Vojna, which means war in Russian,” Mukka said. In one building of this city there is a room in the basement where players can read messages in Russian – the walls in the virtual room are covered with articles and decorated photos.
2000 times downloads in a few days
For example, the room contains reports about the massacre in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Irpin. “Information that is not available in the propaganda apparatus of the Russian state,” explains the editor-in-chief. The map has been downloaded more than 2,000 times since its release on Monday. “This shows that any attempt to prevent the flow of information and mislead the public is doomed to failure in our modern world,” Mukka said.
Source: Krone
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