Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Games on Android phones suddenly appear pro-Israel content. This phenomenon has been reported by several parents in the UK and Europe.
One of them is Maria Julia Assis. He was enjoying his meal when his 6 year old son came over with a pale face full of fear.
The child said he was playing a puzzle game on his Android cellphone and was suddenly interrupted by a video showing the Hamas group, an Israeli family under pressure, and blurred footage.
The video then shows a black screen with a message from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying “WE WILL MAKE SURE THAT THOSE WHO DID ARUTH RECEIVE A DUE REWARD”.
Assis hurriedly deleted the game from his Android cellphone. “He [sang anak] very shocked,” he told Reuters via telephone, quoted on Tuesday (31/10/2023).
“He was literally asking ‘what are these bloody ads doing to my game’?,” he pointed out.
It is not yet clear how violent advertisements can infiltrate cellphone games. However, Assis is not alone.
Reuters found 5 similar reports in various regions in Europe. They all show the same footage, namely rocket attacks, powerful explosions, troops wearing masks.
Everything is shown in a cellphone game where the majority of players are small children. In fact, such advertisements were also found in the popular game ‘Angry Birds’ developed by Rovia studio.
Rovio confirmed this. According to a spokesperson, the violent ads infiltrated the application through a loophole or error in the system.
The Head of Digital at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, David Sarangan, confirmed that the advertising videos were promoted by the government. However, he doesn’t know how these advertisements can appear in various games that target young children.
Sarangan explained that the advertisement was part of the advocacy being intensified by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The local government has spent a budget of US$ 1.5 million to distribute advertisements on the internet since the Hamas attack broke out on October 7.
“We want the world to know what is happening in Israel,” he said.
Reuters contacted 43 advertising firms listed as ‘third parties’ on Rovio’s official website. There were 12 who responded, including Amazon, Index Exchange, and Pinterest. They admitted that they were not responsible for the pro-Israel advertisements that appeared in the Angry Birds game.
Sarangan said the Israeli ministry poured money into advertising companies such as Taboola, Outbrain, Alphabet, and X (formerly Twitter).
Taboola and Outbrain said they knew nothing about the Israeli ad. Google, which runs 90 ads for the Israeli government, declined to comment. X also did not respond.
Reuters detected 6 cases spread across England, France, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands, where cases like Assis occurred. Their child who was playing a game suddenly saw an advertisement promoted by Israel.
Some of the games that appear in the ad include Alice’s Mergeland, Stack, Balls’n Ropes, Solitaire: Card Game 2023, and Subway Surfers.
All game development studios declined to comment.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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