Back in early June, Microsoft warned that Russia is waging a malign disinformation campaign aimed at the Paris Olympics and the French President Emmanuel Macron. According to their information, the influence operations include fabricated videos, fake news and AI-generated speeches, such as the case with the imitated voice of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise.
Author: Miroslava Simonovska
The most spectacular and most anticipated sporting event in the world-the Paris Olympics became a disinformation target for tarnishing the reputation of France and the EU as a whole. This unscrupulous campaign has not spared individuals who have been accused of being “men in women’s bodies”, as just one of the series of disinformation.
Back in early June, Microsoft warned that Russia is waging a malign disinformation campaign aimed at the Paris Olympics and the French President Emmanuel Macron.
Russia is waging an intense disinformation campaign aimed at denigrating the reputation of the International Olympic Committee and creating the expectation of violence breaking out at the Olympics, reported Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center on the 6th of June.
According to their information, the influence operations include fabricated videos, fake news and AI-generated speeches, such as the case with the imitated voice of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. As reported by CNN, on the 4th of June, it was a fake voice falsely claimed to be Tom Cruise’s, narrating a fake documentary that attacks the International Olympic Committee and places coffins to invoke “the Ukraine war near the Eiffel Tower.”
Russia is ramping up these malign campaigns against France, President Emmanuel Macron, the International Olympic Committee and the Olympics. While Russia has a decades-long history of targeting the Olympic Games, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center has observed old tactics blending with artificial intelligence that may intensify as the 2024 Paris opening ceremony approaches, warned Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, on the 3rd of June 2024
Global media also report about the intention to ramp up the anti-EU sentiment. With the help of artificial intelligence, Paris was depicted as “trash-filled, with dirty sewage and rats, as well as “the cradle of crime.”
Global events such as the Olympics have undoubtedly become a high-profile target for online disinformation and propaganda.
What disinformation about the Olympics was prevailing in North Macedonia?
The opening ceremony of the Olympics has been criticized by the more conservative audience for being “satanic” and for “mocking Christianity” and to “top it off” a disinformation circulated that the director of the opening was struck by lightning as God’s punishment. However, the news falsely attributed to global media comes from a Russian source. As seen on the screenshot that was circulating, it says “TeleDNO” in Cyrillic, so it likely originated from the Telegram channel with the same name. However, that is not the primary source for this “screenshot”, since it can be found without that label, which was added after.
Conservative circles also believed that the opening ceremony of the Olympics has “satanic” elements with scenes, which according to them, are a parody of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, where Jesus and his apostles are depicted. However, there is no evidence that that painting was an inspiration for director Thomas Jolly, which he also denies himself.
The biggest controversies, hate speech, disinformation and anti-gender hysteria were sparked by the participation of the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won gold., However, she was previously the target of an organized propaganda campaign in which it was misinformed that she is a “man”.
The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport, said Mark Adams, IOC spokesperson on Friday (the 2nd of August)
Khelif is a woman, who is not transgender, nor does she identifiy as intersex. She has differences of sexual development, known as DSD (Differences in sex development), which is not the same as being a transgender individual. Differences in sex development is a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs that can cause the sexual development of a person to be different than others. Sometimes, this can lead to a person having XY chromosomes but develop otherwise female, report the fact-checkers at USA Today.
After Imane Khelif, boxer Cindy Ngamba (25) was also falsely accused and was the target of a disinformation campaign that claimed she was a man, even though she is a woman. She is born in Cameroon and fled to Great Britain with her family.
Translation:
I don’t watch ANYTHING Western or pro-Western, including the “media” in North, because it is odious, to say the least, not to mention offensive, but I still follow a number of influential people, media and portals to keep myself informed of anything that might pique my interest and curiosity. I am not interested in the Olympics, however, when their opening offends me as an Orthodox Christian, that is another story completely. Yet another proof of the perversion of the West and the desecration of everything that is sacred to someone. And so, to me, the organizers’ explanation is also offensive, I quote:
“It’s clear that there was never an intent to show disrespect toward a religious group or belief.”
Without a grain of remorse, disrespect and obvious deliberate provocation. IS THIS THE EU THE NEO-NORTHENERS (derogatory term) ARE FORCING US INTO? And we wonder why there are catastrophic fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes, wars, GENOCIDE by the West and their servants (Palestine, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Serbia, and I won’t even talk about Macedonia and the Macedonians (Aegean, Pirin, current northern)…
The whole disinformation campaign was aimed at discrediting the EU’s value system and portraying it as perverted. For this purpose, false information was presented on Facebook, claiming that the sponsor “Samsung” withdrew from the Olympics, that is, that they withdrew the funds for sponsorships. It is a satirical post that was promoted in North Macedonia as if it were serious and plain truth.
Translation:
EVEN SAMSUNG REALIZED THAT THESE OLYMPIC SHITS DO NOT DESERVE THEIR FINANCIAL SUPPORT. THIS IS THE MOST DISGUSTING OLYMPICS EVER.
The region has also not been immune to disinformation about the Olympics. Thus, a viral video from 2022 was shared in Serbia with a false title that it originated from the Olympics, as an alleged reaction of the “hundreds of Christians gathered to protest in Paris after the opening of the Olympics”. The footage that was circulating is from a gathering in August of 2022 and shows worshipers on the eve of a Christian holiday in the city of Lourdes, France and has nothing to do with the Olympics.
A photograph of tennis player Novak Djokovic was circulating in Croatia, noting that he allegedly “opposed the shameful opening of the Paris Olympics”, so he “got down on his knees and crossed himself”. The photograph, of course, had nothing to do with the sporting event. It was an old picture from 2022, circulating with an untrue description.
Russia has used its propaganda to discredit past Olympics as well, as it did when the then-Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 games in Los Angeles. At that time, printed material was distributed to Olympic officials in Africa and Asia suggesting that non-white athletes would be hunted by racists in the U.S.
Modern Russia, as well as its predecessor the Soviet Union, has a longstanding tradition of seeking to undermine the Olympic Games. If they cannot participate in or win the Games, then they seek to undercut, defame and degrade the international competition in the minds of the participants, spectators and global audiences, is stated in Microsoft’s June 6th analysis.
On another note, the authorities in France were on high alert for sabotage, cyber attacks and disinformation attacks targeting the Olympic Games.
