The US government is investing millions of dollars in Ukraine's video gaming industry in an effort to train locals how to identify and counter “Russian disinformation and propaganda,” according to a new report.
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This insight into the Biden administration's spending habits was first revealed on May 30, thanks to the video game news outlet. aftermath Co-owner Nathan Grayson.
On April 9, the US State Department began accepting applications for two “video game disinformation”-related grants that had never been offered before, according to research Grayson conducted based on reader input and published on his site.
The “Design for Democratic Resilience and Renewal” grants, worth a total of $1 million in funding, called for recipients to “develop evergreen games in a sandbox platform with an existing fanbase where participants play games that build cognitive resilience against authoritarianism and promote democratic norms and values,” as well as “increase players' skepticism of foreign propaganda and disinformation by increasing their media literacy and digital safety.”
At the same time, a smaller grant of $250,000 was set aside for “establishing a Ukrainian esports counter-disinformation team and tournaments.”
“Leveraging the popularity and penetration of video games in Eastern Europe, implementers will develop an esports program in the Ukrainian American space,” the State Department explained of the grant's objectives. “Esports players will receive specialized training to form a talent pipeline to Ukrainian professional teams. In parallel with traditional esports training, these players will receive counter-disinformation/conflict resolution training to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation in the competitive online gaming space. The project will culminate with an esports tournament and coalition-building events on the tournament's sidelines.”
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A little more than two weeks after applications for these grants opened, the State Department is launching its third funding initiative, this time providing $800,000 to support the creation of the “United with Ukraine Game Jam.”
“Using the science of pre-banking and the popularity and penetration of video games, the implementers will organize a game jam,” the government said. “The games developed at the 'United with Ukraine Game Jam' will increase players' skepticism of foreign propaganda and disinformation.”
Asked by Grayson to comment on the investment, a State Department official asserted that “since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, large areas of the country have been mined and are under threat, so it is not necessarily safe for children to play outside.” “For the time being, play in Ukraine will be primarily indoors, and one popular way to play safely indoors is through video games. Games and the ability to communicate in spaces adjacent to them are a key tool for engaging hard-to-reach audiences who are targeted by disinformation narratives, particularly Russian youth, and for advancing our efforts to counter Russian disinformation and propaganda.”
“Russia clearly already understands the power of gaming, and is using its propaganda and disinformation apparatus to spread pro-Kremlin, anti-Ukraine narratives in games,” they added. “These funding opportunities provide a way for Ukrainian storytellers, developers, and gamers to recognize the propaganda and disinformation commonly spread through games, and to use their design and playing skills to effectively fight back.”
To that end, officials confirmed that while these three grants are not the first video game-related funding opportunities offered by the U.S. government, they represent the state's “largest investment in gaming and digital media literacy to date.”
It is worth noting that the application period for the first two grants closed on May 22nd, while the Ukraine Game Jam grant is accepting proposal submissions until June 12th.
Because of this, as of this writing, recipients of the first round of grants on April 9th have yet to be made public.
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