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Russia is reportedly attempting to scare people and disrupt the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics with an AI-generated fake Tom Cruise movie creatively titled Olympics Has Fallen.
According to a new report published by Clint Watts, General Manager of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, on the company’s website, “Several prolific Russian influence actors, which Microsoft tracks as Storm-1679 and Storm-1099, have pivoted their operations since June 2023 to focus on the Olympics.”
“Olympics-focused activity kicked off in June 2023, when Storm-1679 released on Telegram and then spread online a feature-length film called Olympics Has Fallen, mimicking the 2013 American political action thriller Olympus Has Fallen,” Watts continued.
“Using a fake AI-generated audio impersonating the actor Tom Cruise to imply his participation, the film disparaged the IOC leadership.
“The use of slick computer-generated special effects and a broad marketing campaign, including faked endorsements from Western media outlets and celebrities, indicates a significant increase in skill and effort compared to most Influence Operations (IO) campaigns.”
While the International Olympic Committee did rule that some Russian and Belarusian athletes can compete at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics with approved neutral status, Russia itself has been banned due to the the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
The athletes that will be allowed to compete will do so without the use of their national flag, anthem or colors.
“Storm-1679 is not the only Russia-aligned actor seeking to undermine the 2024 Games,” Clint Watts continued. “The Russia-affiliated actor that Microsoft tracks as Storm-1099, better known as ‘Doppelganger,’ has ramped up its anti-Olympics messaging in the past two months.
“Using its array of 15 unique French language ‘news’ sites, including its core disinformation outlet Reliable Recent News (RRN), it makes claims of rampant IOC corruption and warns of potential violence at the Games.
“The actor also makes forgeries of French outlets Le Parisien and Le Point to echo such claims and castigate [President of France] Macron and his government, his supposed showmanship around the Games and his indifference to the hardships faced by French citizens.”
A fake trailer for the movie Olympics Has Fallen can be viewed here.