According to Microsoft’s report, Russia is conducting a disinformation campaign aimed at the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. The article “How Russia is trying to disrupt the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris” published on the company’s blog shows that the totalitarian power has two goals. The idea is to damage the reputation of the International Olympic Committee and insinuate that multiple acts of violence may have occurred during the event.
Tom Cruise attacks the Olympic Games – this is how the Russians want to disgust the West
One of the elements of this campaign is a bizarre recording with the alleged participation of Tom Cruise, which has been shared on social media since last year – mainly on Telegram. In it, we hear the American star criticizing the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris in a way that is consistent with the current Kremlin narrative. This “work” is titled “Olympics Has Fallen”, which is a clear reference to the film “Olympus Has Fallen” with Gerard Butler in the main role.
Moreover, the “production” is branded with the Netflix logo and fragments of non-existent reviews that were supposed to be published in such prestigious titles as “The New York Times”, “The Washington Post” and the BBC. Of course, Tom Cruise’s voice was generated by artificial intelligence, and the authors of the Microsoft report indicate that the creators of the deepfake devoted a lot of time to it and “demonstrated greater skill than most observed influence campaigns.”
However, in the description of the recording we can read that it presents “financial and sports scandals surrounding the International Olympic Committee (IOC), its management and Thomas Bach, who stands at its head.” The material written by Russian hackers is also said to show “Thomas Bach’s corrupt plans” and expose the “truth” about “how much Olympic champions actually earn and what the IOC spends its budget on.”
This is not the first case of hackers spreading disinformation. Previously, they processed news websites of well-known stations
The group Storm-1679, which is directly related to the Kremlin, is said to be behind the fake recording. Last year, they became more popular when they cleverly started another disinformation campaign involving American stars such as Elijah Wood and Mike Tyson. They did this using the American platform Cameo, which allows you to “order” a personal video recording with a famous person for a fee.
The stars did not expect then that their images and voices would be used by pro-Kremlin hackers to spread anti-Ukrainian disinformation. It was then that Microsoft exposed Russia’s criminal activities. Now the American company also reports that the “production” with Tom Cruise is not the only element of the campaign against the Games in Paris, France and its president Emmanuel Macron.
In recent months, Storm-1679 has released other fake videos intended to instill fear in the public and discourage participation in the Games. These are alleged recordings of news services from the Brussels-based Euronews television and the French France 24 television, in which deepfakes of the station’s presenters appeared. In the first one it was said that Parisians are buying insurance en masse due to the fear of acts of terrorism, and in the second one it was “informed” that 24 percent Olympic tickets were refunded due to fear of a terrorist attack.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
