Finnish newspaper uses video game Counter-Strike to dodge Russian censorship laws | CBC Radio

Russians playing war games online may find themselves stumbling across information about the very real war their country is waging in Ukraine.

A Finnish newspaper is using the popular video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to skirt the Russian propaganda laws that make it impossible to accurately report on the war inside the country.

“You are playing a fictitious war game, and suddenly there’s a spot where you find the rude reality of the world — that the war is actually very real and going on nearby,” Antero Mukka, editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. 

“It’s part of our message that in the digital world, you can’t close up any society, because [information] leaks anyway.”

Helsingin Sanomat launched its secret in-game bunker full of news on Monday, May 3, to coincide with International Press Freedom Day.

The news outlet has been reporting on the war since Russia first invaded the country in February 2022, Mukka says. 

Russia, however, doesn’t call it an invasion or a war, but rather a “special military operation.” Media outlets that counter that official state narrative tend to get blocked or shut down under the state’s propaganda laws.

In response to the Russian media crackdown, Helsingin Sanomat began publishing many of its own stories about Ukraine in the Russian language. It didn’t take long for Russia to catch on and restrict access to their website, Mukka said.

“Without any tricks, you can’t access our website there in Russia. It’s closed by the authorities,” he said. “But we found that online games … are still available and no one has banned them. So why don’t we try that channel? And it seems to work. At least we hope so.”

A secret underground bunker

Counter-Strike is a hugely popular online first-person shooter.

Helsingin Sanomat has built a map in the game of an unspecified war-torn Slavic city, which it’s named de_voyna, in reference to the Russian word voyna meaning war — drawing attention to the word being banned in the Ukrainian context. 

When a player arrives in de_voyna, Mukka says signage and other clues will lead them to a secret bunker in the basement of a large building.

Once there, they will find real photographs from the war in Ukraine, taken by the newspaper’s journalists, as well as Helsingin Sanomat headlines about alleged Russian atrocities, including the discoveries of mass graves in Bucha and Irpin.

WATCH | War reporting from inside a video game: 

Finnish newspaper uses video game to dodge Russia’s press restrictions

Antero Mukka, editor-in-chief of Helsingin Sanomat, explains how the Finland newspaper is using the first-person shooter game Counter-Strike to dodge Russian censorship laws and deliver news about the war in Ukraine.

What’s more, Mukka says, they’ll learn about Russian casualties, which he thinks will be relevant to Russian Counter-Strike players, many of whom are young men who could be mobilized or recruited into the war.

“Russians have also [the] right to know, and I wish them to be able to read reliable information [and] make their own choices,” Mukka said.

“If it just gets at least some Russians [to] give some thoughts, maybe a minute or two, to … the direction their country is going to, I think it’s worth it.”

Mukka said the paper did not partner with, or ask permission from, the game’s publisher, the U.S.-based Valve Corporation, to launch this campaign. Counter-Strike allows users to create and add their own content to the platform.

CBC has reached out to Valve for comment.

Mukka says not yet sure ow many players, Russian or otherwise, have visited the map so far. The paper’s executive editor, Esa Makinin, told Reuters the goal is to draw as people people as possible there in order to lure their target audience.

“The Russians are a big group in Counter-Strike players and they are part of the global community, so we hope that when players start playing this map and it becomes popular within the Counter-Strike community then also the Russians will know this and will start playing,” he said. 

Mukka says there are a lot of unknowns. It’s unclear whether Russia will attempt to restrict access to the game. And he’s also not sure whether Russians who find the newspaper’s bunker will pay attention to what they see there. 

“There are a lot of people in Russian society who know what’s going on, but they kind of want to close their eyes and ears because they don’t want trouble. They just want to live their everyday life,” he said.

“And it could be the same situation or in Counter-Strike. But at least we have tried.”