A massive Russian disinformation operation spread to the Winter Olympics in Milan to portray Ukrainian athletes and fans as aggressive, corrupt, and unacceptable.
This is stated in a study by BBC Verify experts.
Since January 30, BBC Verify experts have analysed 43 examples of fake news shared with them by independent researchers. BBC Verify has been tracking this operation for several years. “Matryoshka” is one of the many names it is known by. Almost nothing is known about where “Matryoshka” operates, who runs it, or whether it actually has ties to the Kremlin.
The BBC gives an example from a press conference by International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry. First, they showed Coventryʼs real press conference to Euronews regarding the disqualification of skeletonist Vladyslav Herashkevych due to a "memory helmet", and a few seconds later, Coventryʼs voice begins to be generated by artificial intelligence.
She “claims” that she was shocked that Ukrainians came to Milan “for crazy political PR”, that the athletes were behaving aggressively, and that she swears that she “has never met such annoying people”. But footage from the actual press conference proves that Coventry said none of these things.
BBC Verify saw the same tactic used to create a deepfake of an American commentator at the Winter Olympics, and Canadian broadcaster CBC debunked an AI video of one of its journalists.
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