Claim
Pakistan jet JF-17 thunder shot down by Indian Defence.
An archived version of the same claim can be seen here.
Fact
On a closer inspection of the viral video, we observed several factors such as the portrait-like nature of the background, the unnatural nature of the firing, and the sudden golden glow of the aircraft- all of which are typical to video game animation.
We then split the video into keyframes and conducted a reverse image search on them, which took us to several similar footages that were uploaded by several gaming channels on YouTube and Instagram.
One such post by an Insta handle called @alone65.1. on March 30, 2025, carried the same footage showing the same sequence of events as seen in the viral video. A closer inspection of the page revealed to us that the page posted gaming footage.
“For sponsor :cloudfree647@gmail.com 🕹️ Press start to play | 🚀 Leveling up every day | #GG #GameOn,” the bio of the page read, confirming that the viral video was also a gaming footage.
We then compared the footage with other similar footage that we received on reverse image search and found that it belonged to the popular game Arma 3.
Thus, we find that a gaming footage of popular game Arma 3 has been shared as visuals of Indian defence shooting down a Pak fighter jet.
Our Sources
Instagram post by @alone65.1., dated March 30, 2025
YouTube video posted by @SeveralSim, dated April 15, 2025
