Since the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas on 7 October, the virtual war of narratives has taken on an unprecedented dimension. While fake images, sometimes taken from video games, appeared in the early days of the conflict, the conflict is now spreading to the edge of pixelated worlds, on two of the world's most popular video games, Roblox and Minecraft. It holds the record for the best-selling game in history since it crossed the 300,000 million copies sold mark on October 16.
Launched in 2009 by Markus Persson, co-founder of Mojang Studios, before being acquired by Microsoft in 2014, Minecraft is a game where worlds can be built and explored by its users. In "creation" mode, players have unlimited access to resources to freely build (or "craft"), in an infinite realm. Just about anything can be designed from the game's characteristic little blocks, a kind of "virtual legos" that can be malleable at will, which attract both children and "hackers". The same principle applies to Roblox, created in 2006, whose graphics are similar to those of Minecraft, but which is played in a more interactive way and whose number of players per day amounts to more than 66 million.
'Supporters of Wagner'
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Minecraft has been used by Wagner supporters to create replicas of the images released by Hamas," said Mustafa Ayad, head of the Middle East office at the Institute for Strategic Dialog, adding that the practice was first reported in 2016 in connection with the rise of ISIS. More recently, in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the New York Times noted the appearance of pro-Russian propaganda on the game, such as the virtual re-enactment of the Battle of Soledar, or the use of the letter "Z."
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But the phenomenon has intensified in the last month around the conflict between Israel and Hamas," Ayad said. "We had already noticed on social networks the appearance of images from the game Arma 3, a hyper-realistic war simulator," he recalls. "But on Minecraft, it's not the same thing: it's more about addressing an audience, spreading a story," the researcher continues.
Because the popularity of Minecraft and Roblox extends far beyond games. The number of videos around Minecraft is breaking all records on Youtube, exceeding one trillion views in 2021. To celebrate this world record attendance, the platform even created a timeline tracing the evolution of the game's popularity on Youtube since its debut in 2010, noting that "if each of these views was a Minecraft block, we could build a stack going from the Earth to the sun and back again."
Image posted by researcher Moustafa Ayad on his account X Screenshot/X
Yet, among these videos taken from the game, some stand out. "To give you an example, one of the game's users, who runs what could be considered a 'Minecraft Wagner Group', produces content to share widely across platforms. One of his videos has reached 500,000 views, for content that is just a Minecraft version of a video of Hamas members attacking an Israeli tank," Ayad said. Its goal? "Information warfare, he says it himself in his bio," the researcher continues.
@cikguzyd
Doa Qunut Nazilah dalam event Roblox semalam #cikguzyd #zydverse #ceviralskit #roblox #robloxfyp
original sound - Cikgu Zyd Gaming- Cikgu Zyd Gaming
'All this is false'
Another phenomenon that has less to do with information warfare than with an extension of reactions to the conflict to virtual worlds is the organization of pro-Israel, or pro-Palestine, demonstrations on games. Two videos of pro-Palestinian rallies on Roblox, posted on Tik Tok, have been viewed more than four million times. Another video from the game that aired on the platform on November 21, emblazoned with the Hamas logo, shows a player "fighting the Israel Defense Forces," according to the video's description. "The battle will not stop until Palestine is liberated," the description continues, before adding, parenthetically, "this is all false, these are role-playing games in Roblox."
@ejtoorim
Bocchi Al-Ruqa back fighting the IDF, this fight will not stop untill Palestine has been freed #roblox #palestine #freepalestine #israel #idf #hamas #bocchi #bocchitherock (tiktok this is all fake this is all in roblox and role play) @Kebob @vortxify
O son of Al Qassam - Ejtoorim
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Minecraft and Roblox are too pixelated to be considered real content," said Mustafa Ayad, who has tracked this type of content online. "But their user base is young, so they play a key role in shaping young people's preferences and promoting certain narratives that are part of the overall disinformation landscape.
»In a report on their statistics for the year 2021, Roblox indicated that more than half of its users were 13 years old or younger. Also popular with young people, Minecraft develops, like its competitor, activities for educational purposes. With this demographic base, both games want to establish themselves as teaching platforms.
@wisreal_development
Wisreal Parade On Roblox [ISRAEL] #fyp#viral#israel#palestine#tiktok #roblox#robloxdevhttps://www.roblox.com/games/15165608138/NEW-Wisreal-Parade
original sound - wisreal_development - Wisreal Parade Creator
Yet, designed to allow the greatest freedom to their players, are these games devoid of rules? When contacted by Le Figaro, a Roblox official said: "Our community standards contain specific policies that prohibit certain images, content, and user communications related to real-world events."
In short, while support for Israel or Palestine is tolerated by the platform, more explicit content endorsing violence or inciting hatred is removed, thanks to the work of thousands of moderators and detection tools. For the platform, it is above all a question of "protecting the safety and civility of our community," says the company's manager. However, neither Roblox nor Minecraft can control what appears on social media, as they are responsible for their own moderation, and have been plagued by an unprecedented increase in war-related content since October 7.