The White House is using clips from the popular video game Call of Duty in official social media posts about the ongoing conflict with Iran. This move comes just days after the U.S. became directly involved in armed conflict in the Middle East, raising questions about how modern military messaging is evolving.
Escalation and Visual Rhetoric
Footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III appears in a compilation of U.S. warfare imagery posted on the White House’s official X account. Specifically, the clip depicts a nuclear strike animation, accompanied by the phrase “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue.” This choice is jarring given reports that recent attacks in Iran have resulted in civilian deaths, including dozens of children reportedly killed in a strike on a school in Minab. The use of video game imagery to represent real-world military actions can desensitize audiences to the brutality of war and normalize extreme violence.
Industry Concerns and Propaganda History
Chance Glasco, a founding developer of the Call of Duty franchise, revealed that Activision previously pressured developers to create a version of the game focused on a hypothetical Iranian attack on Israel. Glasco’s statement underscores the potential for entertainment media to be weaponized for political purposes. This is not a new tactic: the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security previously used images from Halo in recruitment posts, and even repurposed Pokemon slogans to promote ICE operations, including raids that led to U.S. citizen deaths.
The Rise of AI-Generated Misinformation
The White House’s use of video game footage comes amid a broader trend of misinformation surrounding the conflict. Researchers have found that AI-manipulated images and videos are spreading rapidly on social media, exaggerating or misleading users about the situation in Iran. X has responded by suspending accounts that post unlabeled AI-generated content depicting armed conflict, but the spread continues.
The convergence of real-world warfare, video game imagery, and AI-generated content creates a volatile information environment where truth is increasingly difficult to discern. The use of entertainment media as propaganda is not accidental: it serves to normalize extreme violence, desensitize the public, and potentially justify military actions.
The White House’s move highlights a dangerous blurring of lines between entertainment and reality, suggesting that modern warfare will increasingly rely on visual rhetoric to shape public perception.
