Graphic Pro-Israel Ads Appear in Children's Video Games Across Europe; Israeli Officials Unaware of How They Got There

Parents and children startled as violent political content bypasses age-targeting norms amidst ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Rovio and ad partners deny involvement.

Graphic pro-Israel ads have been appearing in children's video games across Europe, featuring violent content related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including images of Hamas militants, Israeli families, and graphic footage.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the ad was part of their campaign and had instructed advertisers to block the ads from reaching people under the age of 18. However, officials were unable to explain how the ad made it into children's games.
Several instances of the ads were reported in games like 'Angry Birds', 'Alice's Mergeland', 'Stack', 'Balls'n Ropes', 'Solitaire: Card Game 2023', and 'Subway Surfers'. These cases were documented across Britain, France, Austria, Germany and Holland.
Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, announced that the ads were being manually blocked from their game. But they did not specify which of their ad partners was responsible for this infiltration.
Despite an investigation that involved reaching out to 43 advertising firms listed as third-party data partners by Rovio, Reuters was unable to identify which company placed the ad in the games. Google, however, did acknowledge running more than 90 ads for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, but declined to specify where those ads were displayed.