The actor in the viral music video denouncing the 2024 Olympics looks a lot like French President Emmanuel Macron. However, images of rats, garbage and sewage have been created with the help of artificial intelligence.
The video, which portrays Paris as a high-crime place and mocks the Olympics, quickly spread across social media platforms like YouTube and X, with the help of 30,000 autonomous social media apps linked to a notorious Russian disinformation group. , who had previously targeted France. Within days, with the help of artificial intelligence, the video was translated into 13 different languages.
“Paris, Paris, 1-2-3, go and pee in the Seine”, mocked an AI-created character while a fake actor resembling President Macron danced in the background. This appeared to be a reference to concerns over water quality in the Seine River, where several Olympic swimming events are taking place.
Moscow is making its presence felt at the Paris Olympics with groups linked to the Russian government using online disinformation and state propaganda to spread claims aimed at inciting tension and violence and attacking the host country. .
Only a small number of Russian athletes have been allowed to compete in the Olympic Games in Paris with neutral status. Such a reaction from the Kremlin was almost expected, after Russian athletes were banned from competing under their country's flag after the invasion of Ukraine, said Gordon Crovitz, co-founder of NewsGuard, a firm that analyzes online misinformation. The firm has tracked dozens of examples of misinformation targeting the Paris Olympics, including the fake music video.
Russia's disinformation campaign targeting the Olympics is notable for its technical prowess, Mr. Crovitz says.
“What's different now is that they are probably the most advanced users of AI-assisted malicious content creation patterns, including fake videos, fake music and fake websites.” he says.
Artificial intelligence can be used to create photos, audio and video recordings, translate texts quickly and create content that is tailored to specific cultures and looks like it was created by a human. The once tedious work of creating fake social media accounts or websites and writing posts can now be done faster and cheaper.
A video recording circulating this week claims that the US Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA and the US State Department have warned Americans not to use the Paris metro. No such warning was issued, and French authorities later confirmed that the video was created by a group linked to the Russian government, likely using artificial intelligence.
Over the weekend, Kremlin-linked disinformation networks exploited the controversy surrounding Algerian-born boxer Imane Khelif, who faced unfounded questions about her gender. Khelif was identified as female at birth, but unfounded claims that she is male or transgender surfaced after a controversial Russian-linked boxing association said she had failed a fitness test ahead of the world boxing championships last year. passed.
Russian networks amplified the debate, which quickly became one of the top topics on the Internet. British media, writer JK Rowling and far-right politicians like Donald Trump are part of the furor. At its peak last week, the case of the boxer had tens of thousands of posts within an hour from users of the social network X, according to the analysis of the company 'PeakMetrics', which researches the theories spread on the Internet.
The boxing association that launched these claims – the International Boxing Association – an organization that has been permanently banned from participating in the Olympic games, is led by a Russian leader who is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and its biggest sponsor is the company Russian state Gazprom. Her decision to disqualify boxer Khelif last year after she defeated a Russian boxer has also been questioned.
Russian state media has been spreading fake news and misleading content. Instead of covering the Olympics, most of the Russian media releases from Paris deal with crime, immigration, trash and pollution.
An article in the “Sputnik” news agency wrote: “The Paris Games are definitely going well. Here's an idea. You have given the organization of the Olympic Games to the rotten West with a low moral level.
Russia has used propaganda to disparage previous Olympic Games, as the Soviet Union did when it boycotted those held in Los Angeles in 1984. At the time, Moscow distributed materials to Olympic Games officials in Africa and Asia that said athletes who do not belong to the white race will be attacked by racists in the United States. This was stated in an analysis by “Microsoft Threat Intelligence”, the unit within the technological giant 'Microsoft' that studies individuals with bad intentions on the Internet.
Russia has also carried out cyber attacks on previous Olympics.
“If they cannot participate in, or win, these games, then they try to discredit international competitions in the minds of participants, spectators and global audiences.” say the analysts of the company “Microsoft”.
The Russian government did not respond Monday to a request for comment on the matter.
Authorities in France have been on high alert for possible sabotage, cyber attacks or fake news targeting the games. A 40-year-old Russian man was arrested in France last month. He has been accused of working for a foreign power that aims to destabilize the European country before the Olympic Games.
Other countries, criminal groups and extremist organizations are also misusing the Olympics to spread their own fake news. Any global event like the Olympics or an environmental disaster or even an important election that attracts a lot of people's attention online usually creates a large amount of fake news and hoaxes, says Mark Calandra, vice president of CSC Digital Brand. Services,” a firm that monitors fraudulent activities on the Internet.
Researchers at this firm have noticed a large increase in the registration of websites with false names, just before the start of the Olympic Games. In many cases, websites that provide Olympic Games content or sell materials related to the Games have been registered.
However, they are actually designed to collect information about site users. Sometimes it's a scammer looking to steal personal financial information. In other cases, the sites are used by foreign governments to gather information on Americans or as a way to spread more fake news.
“Bad actors exploit these global events,” tha soti Calandra. “Whether it's positive events like the Olympics or more disturbing, these people use everyone's heightened awareness and interest to exploit them.”
