A video from the Euronews channel went viral on the Internet, saying that the International Olympic Committee wants to make it mandatory for representatives of the LGBT+ community to participate in the Olympic Games, and their share will have to be at least 10%. We checked whether this video is true.
A video with the Euronews logo, in which the President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach allegedly announces the initiative to introduce a new requirement, appeared in many Telegram channels in early December 2022 (“Russia now" - 308,000 views, "The world of Mikhail Onufrienko" - 340,000, "Live broadcast" - 588,000, "Ostashko! Important" - 109,000). This news was picked up social networks, Media and various forums. Many Russian Internetusers decided that by introducing a quota for LGBT athletes, the IOC still found a way to remove Russia from the Olympics, given the recent Russian law against LGBT+.
In a video with the Euronews channel logo, captions in English say that, under the initiative of IOC President Thomas Bach, national teams at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will have to consist of at least 10% openly LGBT+ representatives. Thus, countries where human rights are violated, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, China, India, Qatar and others, will have to make a choice.
“The IOC will support LGBT+ representatives in sports. IOC President Thomas Bach took the initiative to enshrine LGBT+ rights in the committee's charter. The proposal would require 10% of each country's national team at the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics to be openly LGBT+. Thomas Bach believes that the 2022 World Cup in Doha has highlighted the importance of this initiative. Participants and guests of the World Cup faced blatant restrictions on the rights of the LGBT+ community. And to prevent this scenario from repeating itself at IOC competitions, the rights of LGBT+ athletes must be enshrined in the rules. Thomas Bach emphasized that countries with restrictions on human rights and freedom of self-determination will face a choice, especially Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, China, India, Qatar and other homophobic regimes. Some experts have criticized the initiative, saying it is merely an attempt to divert attention from the corruption scandals surrounding Thomas Bach and the IOC. The decision could be made as early as 2023,”
- says the video.
The video is made in the style of short news clips Euronews, in which the viewer watches a video about a recent incident and reads textual explanations. When watching the video about the IOC, one gets the impression that Thomas Bach’s press conference was precisely dedicated to the new LGBT+ rule. However, the clip with Bach was taken from press conferences 2016, where not a word was said about LGBT+. Subsequent shots of Bach were clearly taken from other events, where he alternately wore a blue tie and then a red one. Video of protesters against the persecution of the LGBT community in Qatar was taken from reportage British channel The Sun.
A Google search in English using the keywords “Thomas Bach, IOC, 10%, LGBT+” did not return any results. On website Euronews we were also unable to find either the video itself or any mention of this news. In addition, the channel itself stated in a comment to the Georgian fact-checking agency “Myth Detector” that the video is a fake and has nothing to do with Euronews. In addition, the IOC press service also refuted information about the new initiative.
Similar videos, where fake news is spread on behalf of some reputable foreign media, have recently appeared more and more often on the RuNet. We have previously exposed fake videos with Qatari TV channel logos Al Jazeera and German Deutsche Welle. All three videos are made according to the same principle: several unrelated video clips are glued together into a single video, and against their background there are text captions telling about a false event.
Interestingly, several Russian pro-government media outlets have issued their own denials about the allegedly introduced quotas for LGBT athletes. Website VGTRK wrote that their European correspondent did not find confirmation of this information. TV channel "Constantinople” asked himself who needed to launch such a fake, and came to the conclusion - the LGBT community itself: “The author of the fake could be just the global sodomite lobby, which was very concerned about the position of the authorities in Qatar, where the World Cup is currently being held, regarding their rejection of the propaganda of sexual perversions. This is clearly a test balloon thrown by perverts to see what the reaction in the world will be. This information sabotage is intended not only for Russia, but, given the English subtitles, for the whole world. Under the guise of a fake, a “topic” is slipped in so that people can discuss it and get used to it.”
Thus, the news about new requirements for Olympic teams is not true, and the video has nothing to do with the Euronews channel. Both the channel itself and the IOC denied this information. It is difficult to accurately determine the author of this video. But judging by the fact that it is widespread in Russian-language Telegram channels and VKontakte and is almost never found on English-language websites or social networks, the target audience of this fake is the Russian public.
Cover image: Telegram
Fake
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