Remember a few years back, when the UK's ITV mistook an Arma 2 video for footage of the IRA shooting down a helicopter? Or more recently, when Iranian news agencies confused Medal of Honor gameplay with a real-life battle? To be fair, given the relative authenticity of the clips involved, those were understandable(ish) mistakes. But the tweet from Russia's UK embassy warning of extremists in Syria acquiring chemical weapons? Not so much.
. @mod_russia: Extremists near Aleppo received several truckloads of chemical ammo. pic.twitter.com/scCEMXRvwHMay 12, 2016
If that image rings a bell, it's likely because it's a shot of Bomb Trucks from Command & Conquer: Generals, viewable in all its original glory at the Command & Conquer Wiki. What led the embassy to use a 13-year-old videogame screen to illustrate a presumably serious tweet is anybody's guess, although it at least had the good grace to add “Image used for illustration purposes only” to the bottom.
Naturally, the internet has responded in the only way it knows how: with illustrated ridicule.
@RussianEmbassy @mod_russia Evidence of Fascists in Ukraine violating Minsk Protocol pic.twitter.com/6kn7YrL3dcMay 12, 2016
Thanks, Eurogamer.