All too often following a violent tragedy, certain sensationalist corners of the news media scramble to link the attacks to video games in some way. The recent terrorist attacks on Paris have been no exception, as several British newspapers including tabloids The Daily Mail and The Mirror, as well as the usually more respectable Telegraph, began blaring headlines about how ISIS may have used the Playstation 4 to plot their most recent atrocities. Of course, the internet picked up on these reports and ran with them.
So, what evidence were these headlines based on? Well, Belgium’s deputy prime minister Jan Jambon recently made a brief statement about international policing agencies being concerned about the PS4 because its Party Chat app and in-game communications are harder to track and decrypt than other chat services.
“PlayStation 4 is even more difficult to keep track of than WhatsApp. It’s very, very difficult for our services to decrypt the communication that is done via PlayStation 4.”
Shortly after the Paris Attacks, an article by Forbes claimed a PS4 was found in Belgian terrorist raids. Various papers and websites connected this “fact” with Jambon’s statement, and it was off to the races. Terrorists are using the PS4 for recruiting purposes and may have used the console to plan the Paris Attacks!
Not so fast. Forbes has since issued a correction, saying there’s no evidence a PS4 was found in the Belgian raids. Furthermore, Jambon wasn’t identifying any particular threat, but rather using the PS4 as a general example of how multi-pronged and difficult it can be to track terrorist communications. The fact is, no actual evidence has been presented that the PS4 is being used for ISIS recruitment, or was in any way used to plan the attacks on Paris.
Sony has issued in response to the PS4 being linked to terrorism by the media…
“PlayStation 4 allows for communication amongst friends and fellow gamers and, in common with all modern connected devices, this has the potential to be abused. However, we take our responsibilities to protect our users extremely seriously and we urge our users and partners to report activities that may be offensive, suspicious or illegal. When we identify or are notified of such conduct, we are committed to taking appropriate actions in conjunction with the appropriate authorities and will continue to do so.”
Paranoia and finger-pointing is going to happen following a tragedy like the Paris attacks, but, as is usually the case, it looks like video games aren’t the cause of the world’s very real, very disturbing problems.
(Via Ars Technica)