Journalists from around the world have begun receiving emails with a fake video that purports to be a WIRED story. It claims that GSC Game World is allegedly collecting data from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 players and passing it on to the Ukrainian government. The video is also being actively shared on Telegram channels. This was reported by 404 Media.
“Ukrainian game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 helps the government locate citizens suitable for mobilization,” text in the video says over gameplay footage of Stalker 2. “An embedded program was discovered in the game’s code that collects player data and transmits it to the developer’s servers. The program collects data about the device, name, IP address and current location of the player. The information is transmitted every second.”
Of course, WIRED has nothing to do with this video. In the best traditions of "spoofs," the video shows just footage from the game and some incomprehensible piece of code that randomly selects a date or platform.
The French news agency AFP, which, along with many other media outlets, received the fake video, called it "Operation Matryoshka." According to researchers from the Digital Forensic Research Lab, the purpose of such operations is to flood the information space with false and low-quality materials and force journalists to ignore a particular topic. The Russians simply cannot accept the fact that the Ukrainian game is being played and discussed all over the world.