US President Donald Trump's administration has produced a horrifying, blood-spattered video showcasing extreme video-game violence - and the YouTube clip has quickly become an internet hit.
Less than 24 hours after the White House uploaded it to YouTube, the gory and ultra-violent video has been viewed more than 600,000 times.
The video was screened during President Trump's meeting Thursday with game-industry execs, watchdog group reps, lawmakers and other attendees, and released on YouTube afterward.
Trump had suggested that video games may play a part in leading to mass shootings like the attack in the Parkland, Florida high school last month in which 17 people were killed.
Donald Trump tweeted that "Video game violence & glorification must be stopped—it is creating monsters!" Source: YouTube
However, there has never been any evidence that fantasy video-game violence correlates with real-world violence, as the video-game industry pointed out.
The White House's video-game violence reel was supposed drive discussion of whether "games that graphically simulate killing desensitise our community to violence," according to the press office.
It now ranks as the White House's fifth most-viewed video on YouTube since Trump took office.
The 88-second video depicts numerous violent deaths including beheadings, clubbings, and stabbings, as well as people's heads being shot off and a mass shooting with automatic weapons.
An image grab from the video screened by the President in his meeting with game-industry executives. Source: White House/YouTube
The White House moved the video to "unlisted" status (meaning it does not appear on the channel) shortly after uploading it.
Why the video has gone viral is open to interpretation.
Many viewers may simply be curious about what the White House decided to cherry-pick as examples of appalling video-game violence.
But the montage has also drawn fans: A Newsweek writer, for example, called the White House video "awesome," saying that it's a "tribute to why people love video games".
