A video montage of violent scenes in video games has been released on the White House’s official YouTube channel, spawning a backlash from gaming fans.
The video was created for a “closed” meeting on Thursday between President Donald Trump and computer game executives, The Verge reports, and is indicative of the US government’s stance on the subject.
The meeting comes in response to the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month, in which 17 people were killed.
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According to Polygon, talks “could be a diversion” to distract attention from the ongoing debate over gun laws in the US.
The US government claims that video games provoke violence in real life, a claim that the industry representatives denied at the meeting, insisting there was “no evidence” of a link, reports the BBC.
The age-restricted games featured in the White House clip include Bethesda’s Fallout 4 and the Sniper Elite series. It also features the infamous “No Russian” mission from 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in which players shoot at groups of unarmed civilians in an airport.
The montage has attracted more than 22,000 dislikes and just 700 likes on YouTube, with one commenter asking: “If killing someone in a game makes me a murderer, does playing Dr. Mario make me a pharmacist?”
Video game fans also took to Twitter, where some pointed out the irony of the White House uploading violent footage.