A viral music video mocking the 2024 Olympics in Paris has raised concerns about a Russian disinformation campaign targeting the Games. The video, featuring an actor resembling French President Emmanuel Macron, portrays Paris as a crime-ridden and polluted city. The imagery of rats, trash, and sewage in the video was generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The video quickly spread on social media platforms, aided by 30,000 social media bots linked to a notorious Russian disinformation group.
The disinformation campaign surrounding the Paris Games has extended beyond the music video. Russian networks seized on a controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, spreading baseless claims about her gender. These claims originated from a boxing association with Russian ties, which alleged that Khelif failed an eligibility test. The debate was amplified by British news outlets, author J.K. Rowling, and right-wing politicians like Donald Trump. The disinformation networks on X, a social media platform, were posting about the boxer tens of thousands of times per hour at the peak of the controversy.
The International Boxing Association, the organization at the center of the claims against Khelif, has been permanently barred from the Olympics. It has a Russian president who is an ally of Vladimir Putin, and its main sponsor is the state energy company Gazprom. Questions have been raised about the association’s decision to disqualify Khelif after she defeated a Russian boxer.
The disinformation campaign orchestrated by Russia during the Paris Games has showcased advanced technical skills, particularly in the use of generative AI models to create fake videos, music, and websites. AI has enabled the rapid translation of content into multiple languages, making disinformation campaigns more widespread and impactful.
Other instances of disinformation targeting the Olympics include a video claiming that the CIA and U.S. State Department warned Americans against using the Paris metro, which was proven to be false. Russian state media has also propagated false and misleading content, diverting attention from the athletic competitions to issues such as crime, immigration, litter, and pollution.
Russia has a history of using propaganda to disparage past Olympic Games, including boycotting the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and distributing printed material suggesting non-white athletes would be targeted by racists. The country has also engaged in cyberattacks against previous Olympics.
French authorities have been on high alert for sabotage, cyberattacks, and disinformation targeting the Paris Games. A Russian man was recently arrested in France on charges of working for a foreign power to destabilize the country ahead of the Games.
