Microsoft
Last year, a feature-length documentary purportedly produced by Netflix began circulating on Telegram. The documentary, titled “Olympics Fallen,” is narrated by a voice that closely resembles actor Tom Cruise and harshly criticizes the leadership of the International Olympic Committee. The well-produced film received five-star reviews from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC, and quickly went viral on social media. Among those who appeared to endorse the documentary were celebrities on the Cameo platform.
A recently published report (PDF) from Microsoft said the film was not a documentary and had not been reviewed as such, and that the narrator's voice was an AI-created deepfake of Cruise. It also said the Cameo ad was fake. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Report further said the fake documentary and ad were just one of many elaborate hoaxes created by Russian government agents in a years-long influence operation aimed at discrediting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and preventing participation and attendance at the Paris Olympics starting next month.
Other examples of the Kremlin's ongoing influence operations include:
- A video purportedly from Brussels-based outlet Euronews claimed that Parisians were buying property insurance in case of a terrorist attack at the Olympics.
- A fake video purporting to be from French broadcaster France 24 claimed that 24 percent of tickets for the tournament had been returned due to fears of terrorism.
- Fake video press releases were produced, purporting to be from the CIA and the French Directorate General for Internal Security (DGSI), warning potential participants to refrain from attending the 2024 Paris Olympics due to fears of terrorist attacks.
- The list includes 15 French-language “news” sites, including a core disinformation outlet called Reliable Recent News (RRN), which has alleged widespread corruption at the IOC and warned of possible violence at the Olympics. The sites impersonate French outlets Le Parisien and Le Point to spread their claims and attempt to blame French President Emmanuel Macron and his government.
Members of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, a team that tracks hacking and influence operations by nation-state actors, attributed much of the activity to two different groups tracked under the names Storm-1679 and Storm-1099, both of which have a long history of planting Kremlin talking points in Western media.
“Beginning in June 2023, Russian influence operators, tracked by Microsoft as Storm 1679 and Storm 1099, conducted operations targeting the 2024 Olympic Games and French President Emmanuel Macron,” MTAC members wrote. “The ongoing Russian influence operation has two main objectives: to tarnish the International Olympic Committee's reputation on the world stage, and to create expectations of riots in Paris during the 2024 Summer Olympics.”
