It has once again been zero days since a War Thunder player used military documents to win a forum fight

January 17, 2023 1:00 PM

When we highlighted how War Thunder players had used classified military documents to argue their cases an astonishing three times during our roundup of weird MMO stories from 2022, one of our commenters noted how this behavior likely made military espionage easy as pie. The game’s playerbase has once again proven that reader right because, as that headline notes, it has happened a fourth time.

We return to the leaky colander known as the official forums where, as first reported by MMO Fallout, a player apparently shared military documents related to the F-16 fighter jet in order to win an argument in said forums. While the documents in question were reportedly declassified, the shared details still fall under the jurisdiction of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a State Department-enforced law that limits disclosure and transmission of US weapons data and information to foreign individuals, including distribution on the internet.

What’s more, the poster in question tried to argue that the documents didn’t break the forum rules, completely ignorant of the fact that he broke State Department and military rules instead. For a fighter jet that is apparently still in active service.

Pardon me while I roll my face on the keyboard. Especially since we now have a list of these events to share.