UA Finnish newspaper revealed on Wednesday that it has found a way around Russia’s media censorship by hiding information and reports about Ukraine in a popular online game in Russia.
“While Helsingin’s Sanomat and foreign independent media are blocked in Russia, online games are currently not banned,” newspaper editor Andero Mukka told AFP.
Helsingin’s Sanomat used Counter-Strike, an online shooter in Russia with around four million players. While most games are played on official levels and maps published by publisher Valve, players can create custom maps that anyone can download and use.
“So we built a Slavic city called Voyna, which means battle in Russian,” explained Mucka.
In the basement of one of the city’s buildings, technicians from Helsingin’s Sanomat have hidden a room where they find reports made in Russian by the newspaper’s war correspondents in Ukraine.
The walls of the digital room are covered with articles and photos detailing events such as massacres in Ukrainian cities such as Butsa and Irbin.
On one of the walls, players can see a map of Ukraine, where attacks on civilians have been reported, and a sign in Russian reads the articles of Helsing’s Sanomat.
Mucka added that this was “information not available in the propaganda organs of the Russian state”.
Since its release on Monday, the map has already been downloaded more than two thousand times.
“This shows that any attempt to block the flow of information and mislead the public will fail in our modern world,” the author added.
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