Activision's PR stunt via social media to hype the "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3" release on Nov. 6 has drawn flak because it reported a fake terrorist attack in Singapore. The team behind the first-person shooter game began reporting a detailed blow-by-blow account of a "terrorist" siege happening in Singapore in its official Twitter account Wednesday.
The Call of Duty Twitter account started tweeting to its millions of followers that a 30-mile quarantine zone had already been set up after an alleged explosion at the Northbank of Singapore Marina.
BREAKING NEWS: Unconfirmed reports are coming in of an explosion on the North bank of the Singapore Marina.
— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
The account proceeded to advise Singaporeans to remain indoors due to riots and violent gunfights. This was accompanied by supposed photographs of the assault, which turned out to be screenshots of the opening cinematics of the the game, according to Mashable. Several social media users have said the misleading tweets are causing unwarranted panic with some saying that it is being done in poor taste. See some of the tweets below:
.@CallofDuty Your fake news story advertisement is offensive on multiple levels. I'm not buying another CoD and encouraging others to not. — Adam Feldhaus (@cafeldhaus) September 30, 2015
@CallofDuty This was unbelievably poor taste. How about we send you to a combat zone and see how well you like makin jokes after?
— Art Jam! (@jimibab) September 30, 2015
Indeed, one can just imagine how the following tweet, which has been retweeted and favorited several times, would be interpreted by an unsuspecting reader, particularly those residing in the city-state.
UPDATE: Singapore Authorities have officially announced a state of emergency and declared martial law. — Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 29, 2015
The tweets are still currently live at Call Of Duty's official Twitter account. However, they are in danger of being blocked because they violate several Twitter rules for verified account. It is also important to note that the account changed its name to Current Events Agg., with a tag line that says "Where we bring you real news." This has been deleted already but was saved in a screenshot by Destructoid
Activision is yet to issue a statement addressing the growing furor over its PR stunt. It is also not clear whether it violates Singaporean laws with the Call of Duty tweets.
