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Check the Claim: Was a teen arrested for plotting to destroy a building in Minecraft?

SKILL: Check the Claim

DIFFICULTY: Simple

SUBJECT(S): Politics/Current Events

Posted: October 13, 2022

This article claims that a Siberian teen was imprisoned for 5 years for a plot to blow up a virtual government building in Minecraft. By checking the claim students will learn this story is true.

Related Lesson

Verification Skills Lesson 3: Check the Claim (sign-in required)

Link to Example

16-Year Old Jailed As A "Terrorist" For Blowing Up Russian Government Building In Minecraft (article)
A group of Minecraft characters.

About the Example

This article from a site called TheGamer claims that a 16-year old in Siberia has been jailed for five years over a “terrorist plot” to blow up a Federal Security Services (FSB) building they had recreated in Minecraft.

There is no Wikipedia entry for this site, so students must perform a claim check. 

According to reliable sources, this claim is true, and the teenager and two friends were found guilty “undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities” on Feb. 10, 2022.

This fits into a broad pattern where young Russians who show political opposition are jailed on preemptive terrorism charges. 

 



Activities 

  1. Have students review the example article, enough to formulate a set of keywords to search the key claim. 
  2. There are a lot of keywords to choose from here, so they can choose a few such as: “minecraft terrorist russia teen.” What did they discover?
  3. The search shows that many news sources have reported on and verified the story including The Guardian. Were students able to find other reliable sources reporting the information, as well?
  4. As these sources might be unfamiliar to students they can search for them on Wikipedia. In this case, several of our results have Wikipedia entries saying they are reliable and we can be confident the claim is true.

 



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