Paris, France – Groups linked to the Russian government are leveraging online disinformation campaigns to undermine the 2024 Paris Olympics, spreading false narratives and portraying the city as a crime-ridden, chaotic environment.
A viral music video, featuring an actor resembling French President Emmanuel Macron and AI-generated images of rats, trash, and sewage, mocks the Games and rapidly spread across social media platforms like YouTube and X. The video, boosted by 30,000 social media bots linked to a notorious Russian disinformation group, was translated into 13 languages by AI.
“Paris, Paris, 1-2-3, go to Seine and make a pee,” sings an AI-enhanced character as the faux Macron actor dances, referencing water quality concerns in the Seine River where some competitions are held.
Moscow's influence is evident, with Russian-linked groups using disinformation and state propaganda to attack the host country, illustrating how global events like the Olympics are now high-profile targets for online manipulation.
Over the weekend, disinformation networks connected to the Kremlin seized on the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who faced unsubstantiated gender-related accusations. These claims were fueled by a controversial boxing association with Russian ties, which claimed she failed an opaque eligibility test before last year's world boxing championships.
Russian networks amplified this debate, which quickly became a trending topic online. Prominent figures, including British news outlets, author J.K. Rowling, and right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, contributed to the deluge. At its peak, X users posted about the boxer tens of thousands of times per hour, according to PeakMetrics, a cyber firm tracking online narratives.
The boxing group at the heart of these claims, the International Boxing Association, has been permanently barred from the Olympics. The association, led by a Russian president allied with Vladimir Putin, has Gazprom, the state energy company, as its biggest sponsor. Questions have also emerged about its decision to disqualify Khelif last year after she defeated a Russian boxer.
The decision to permit only a limited number of Russian athletes to compete as neutrals and to ban them from team sports following the invasion of Ukraine essentially guaranteed the Kremlin's retaliatory response, said Gordon Crovitz, co-founder of NewsGuard, a firm that analyzes online misinformation. NewsGuard has documented numerous examples of disinformation targeting the Paris Games, including the fabricated music video.
“What's different now is that they are perhaps the most advanced users of generative AI models for malign purposes: fake videos, fake music, fake websites," Crovitz said.
AI technology enables the creation of lifelike images, audio, and video, rapid text translation, and culturally specific content that mimics human creation. The previously labor-intensive work of creating fake social media accounts or websites and writing posts can now be performed quickly and inexpensively.
Another video amplified by Russian-based accounts falsely claimed that the CIA and U.S. State Department warned Americans against using the Paris metro. No such warning was issued.
Russian state media echoed similar false content. Instead of covering athletic competitions, much of the Olympics coverage focused on crime, immigration, litter, and pollution. An article in the state-run Sputnik news service summarized it: “These Paris ‘games’ sure are going swimmingly. Here’s an idea. Stop awarding the Olympics to the decadent, rotting west.”
Russia's use of propaganda to disparage the Olympics is not new. During the Soviet Union’s boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games, it distributed materials suggesting that non-white athletes would be hunted by racists in the U.S., according to Microsoft Threat Intelligence.
“If they cannot participate in or win the Games, then they seek to undercut, defame, and degrade the international competition in the minds of participants, spectators, and global audiences,” Microsoft analysts concluded.
French authorities are on high alert for sabotage, cyberattacks, or disinformation targeting the Games. A 40-year-old Russian man was arrested in France last month for allegedly working for a foreign power to destabilize the country ahead of the Games.
Various other entities, including criminal groups, extremist organizations, and scam artists, are exploiting the Olympics to spread disinformation. Global events like the Olympics often generate significant false and misleading claims, said Mark Calandra, executive vice president at CSC Digital Brand Services.
CSC researchers observed a surge in fake website domains registered ahead of the Olympics. Many of these sites appear to offer Olympic content or merchandise but are designed to collect user information, often for scams or to spread more disinformation.
“Bad actors look for these global events,” Calandra said. “Whether they're positive events like the Olympics or more concerning ones, these people use everyone's heightened awareness and interest to try to exploit them.”
