Social media platforms crack down on drone factory recruiting game

The report describes an active, coordinated online recruitment and influence campaign tied to Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone that leverages a multilingual video game (Drone Battle: Ukraine), social media influencers, esports, and gamified messaging to funnel young people toward education, travel, and ultimately employment assembling attack drones; investigators and platforms have taken some removal actions but the campaign persists on channels like X and Telegram.