Very strange cinema: Z-channels spoke about a fake documentary with Tom Cruz about corruption in the IOC, but the series did not become a world sensation

When the editors of “verified” selects topics for future analysis, one of our main criteria There is a high level of relay and quoting of a particular plot in mass media. In other words, the media should be written about suspicious news, dubious photo or video, large Telegram channels, hundreds of ordinary users of social networks. However, in this text we will talk about a unique fake, the traces of which were seen by millions of people, but few people know about the fake itself. “Verified” tells how in social networks for several months inside the fakes about Ukraine (and not only) advertised the allegedly removed Netflix (and actually generated using the neural network) a documentary project on abuses at the top of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Pilot

At the end of June, “verified” found in Telegram allegedly shot by Al Jazeera TV channel video About the catastrophe of the deep -sea apparatus "Titan". As stated in the video, Ukrainians in social networks reproached the crew in a waste of money, because they could be sacrificed to support Ukraine. We found outthat in fact, the plot has nothing to do with one of the largest Middle Eastern media. This was one of the works of the fake factory, which is regularly Stampet Video, mimicating under the plots of famous and reputable foreign media. However, in that case, there was still something unusual-at the end of the video it was said that the British tycoon Hamish Harding (one of dead On board the Titan) allegedly sponsored the filming of a certain documentary for Netflix on corruption in the leadership of the IOC, headed by Thomas Bach.

The name of the project, Olympics Has Fallen, could be seen on the poster, which was shown in the video - the poster was allegedly hanged at a public transport stop (this is another very common view fakes). The phrase Olympics Has Fallen can be translated as “the fall of the Olympics” - probably the name was chosen by analogy with the militant “The fall of Olympus"(Olympus Has Fallen). Judging by Strangeness and artifacts In the image of the face of Cruise (for example, an unusual form of wrinkles on the forehead, which merge with the hair, and the look of swollen left eye), most likely, the poster of this supposedly original Documentary Netflix generated a neural network. If you check Filmography actor on any film portal or library Streaming service, to find there such a series, of course, will not work.

A link to the site is posted at the bottom of the fake poster Olympshasfallen.com, who stopped working shortly after we discovered it in the summer. However, “verified” succeeded Subtract copies of pages from the Google cache. According to services, revealing information about the registration of the domain, the site was Created Back in early June 2023. Moreover, all data about the domain owner hidden From third -party users.

Unfortunately, “verified” no screenshots of the site have been preserved, and the existing archival pages do not allow you to fully evaluate how it looked. However, even according to text versions, it is clear that the authors of the project tried to disguise their site for official landing: links to real Netflix pages in social networks, as well as logos and banners of the series and a streaming platform were added. Moreover, on the same resource it was proposed to see all the episodes of the series without subscription and absolutely free.

The improvised promotion of the series could not bypass YouTube. An empty account was used to place the videos on this platform, created Back in August 2019. However, at the time of writing this text is everything Trailers And Excerpts From the documentary, published on this channel, are already inaccessible (their traces Remained In the sinter cache Google). Judging by the data survived on the network, the Furora on YouTube did not produce a series: only five people subscribed to the profile (including the author “verified”), at the beginning of July, all the video had a total of more than 4,000 views.

Synopsis

The series itself consists of four episodes, each of which lasts about nine and a half minutes (that is, the total duration of a fake project was almost 40 minutes, which in terms of duration significantly exceeds all fabricated videos, which previously Disassembled "Checked"). Sinopsis of the project says: “This exclusive documentary series opens the box of Pandora previously unknown financial and sports scandals associated with the IOC and its leaders, led by Thomas Bach. You will learn how the IOC works and how the Bach’s corruption schemes fit into its structure, what fate awaits boxing, how much they really pay the Olympic champions and what the IOC spends their budgets on. ”

The authors of the script even made a kind of journalistic work. They collected many articles O those who happened In different years, in different countries of corruption scandals, which concerned various sports organizations (including the IOC), and then they connected it all with the leadership of the Olympic Committee. In the series itself, links are carefully given to all the media materials used through QR codes.

Although all four videos are mounted as if the whole investigation from the first person is conducting Tom Cruise itself, adding some facts from its biography, in fact there is not a single original frame with the actor (but there are many animated inserts on the topic of ancient Greece) and it does not show how he pronounces the words that sounds behind the scenes. Apparently, the authors took advantage of the neural network, with the help of which they voiced the entire series. By the way, the transcripts of each episode were published on the site along with the video.

Summary of each series:

1. "Olympic Games. Or the fall of Olympus. Start"
   “On the creation of IOC and the appearance of two -faced members in its ranks. You will learn how criminal organizations help some members of the IOC rob sports federations. What became famous for John Cowts, one of the VIC VICE President? And what title will be assigned to the IOC in 2021? "
   
2. "Money MOK"
   “How does the financial structure of the IOC function and how are the funds inside the Olympic movement actually distributed? What privileges do high -ranking MOC members use and what reaches athletes at the foot of the sports Olympus? ”
   
3. "Bach's mafia, or stratagemo wu"
   “How did the International Boxing Association receive a knockout blow? Who covers the transactions of Bach and his minions and why are the names of the main participants in sports scandals disappear from the reports of the IOC commission on ethics? ”
   
4. "Bach from Olympus"
   “An annual allowance of $ 250,000 and accommodation in a five -star hotel in Switzerland. What other privileges do President of the IOC Thomas Bach receive? And how did he break to the top of the IOC, crushing the entire Olympic movement under himself and making his power absolute? ”

It is funny that with all the difficulty of creating such a fake, his authors were mistaken in seemingly simplest things. For example, on the site as the creators of the tape indicated Directors Alaster Fothergill, Kit Sholei and Johnny Hughes (he, also claimed, performed a producer with Tom Cruise) and Martin Elzbury Mounter - these people Filmed Documentary film "David Atenboro: Life on our planet"Released on Netflix in 2020. At the same time, in the credits of all episodes “The fall of the Olympiad”, other filmmakers are listed (of course, counting Cruise): producers Bert Marcus and Cassandra Hamar, executive producers Brett Gursky and Ben Lyons, editors Chavdar Georgiev and Monica Elarm, as well as other team members, who removed For Netflix documentary film 2018 "American meme".

Promotion

When the editors of “Verified” only found out about the series, we decided that the story of Cruise, IOC and Netflix would soon be untwisted in Z-channels as an independent loud story. To our surprise, despite the scale and complexity of the fake, this did not happen - in six months only two small foci of distribution of posts, where the series was directly mentioned.

The first time this happened on June 28, when the same false video Al Jazeera was flooded. Then in Telegram channels "Info DPR" And "Waiting", which many once They became The heroes of our analysis, separately wrote about the fictitious conspiracy theory mentioned in the plot, according to which the “Titan” was flooded to kill the investor of the documentary about Bach. Those publications received 51,000 and 7700 views (were And otherbut they collected less than 1000). At the same time, the most popular (153,000 views) was the post of channel "Zlaya Pruf", Where, despite the general pro -Kmorelevsky and anti -Ukrainian rhetoric, the video supposedly from Al Jazeera was called false. “Fakes such as hot pies are scattered through social networks, since the channel administrators are simply too lazy to check them for authenticity,” it is written in the Telegram channel, which dozens If it was Caught on the spread of lies.

The second round of popularity happened on July 13. Then the reason was the statement of Umar Kremlin, the president of the international boxing association, which is a IOC three weeks earlier deprived status and, accordingly, the opportunity to participate in the Olympics. In social networks, sports functioner wrote: "All those who are involved in dirty political games in the framework of sports will eventually leave our Olympus!" In a number of Telegram channels, assumptions (and somewhere statements) appeared that in this way Kremlin "made a reference to the new scandalous documentary series of Tom Cruise." In particular, such posts went to "Signal"(67,000 views),"Urgently, now"(40,000),"Baby smoking"(35,000),"Urgent and accurately - news digest"(30 000) and Kremlin_russian (28,000).

Change of distributor

By that time, the site’s website did not work, and in some posts about the Kremlin they gave a link to the Telegram channel of the same name, created On July 3. There, the authors of the fake on behalf of Cruise published an explanation of the closure of their resource. “Mr. Bach, I knew that you would track and destroy the mirrors of my site in the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and other countries. The Netflix team and I created thousands of mirrors "The fall of the Olympiad" in Telegram (in fact did not create. - Approx. Ed.). On one of them you are right now. Caricature Hollywood villain Thomas. Millions already know who you are. You are sincerely yours, the Tom and the Netflix team, ” - supposedly wrote Hollywood actor in the first post of the channel. The explanations why the series cannot be posted on the site of the streaming service, for which it was allegedly removed, it was not “verified”. The Telegram channel posts all four episodes, and uploaded files are called respectively Olympics_ep_01_v017, Olympics_ep02_v011, Olympics_ep03_v011 And Olympics_ep04_v009 - If the last two digits indicate the version number, it turns out that each series was redone many times.

Among other content in the Olympics Has Fallen Telegram channel There is A banner with the reviews of eminent Western publications, which allegedly gave the series the highest rating. Among them:

• The Washington Post: “Bold and honest. The world must know what is happening on the top of the sports Olympus! ”; 
• The New York Times: “The mission, which seemed impossible, is completed. Tom Cruise is trying to save world sport from oblivion ”; 
• BBC: “A documentary project that reveals the ugly side of world sports!”;
• The Daily Beast: “An unprecedented documentary series about how much sport costs and who earns it the most on it. Spoiler! These are not athletes. "

The last post in the channel is posted on July 6 selection Of the five fake Instagram*-storism, allegedly published in the accounts of musicians, actors and athletes. Among these stars:

• Ozzi Ozborn: “Tom Cruise, I am not an iron person. You are an iron man. " Moreover Iron Man For some reason it is written together;
• Jared Leto: “Long live Netflix. Long live Tom Cruise. Long live Pavel Durov. No villain can get rid of the truth ”;
• Miley Cyrus: “Smell them to fluff, Tom!”;
• Mike Tyson: “Tom Cruise, this is a knock for Bach and his morons!”;
• David Beckham: “Tom, I watched your show on Netflix with his family. Happy to be part of this project! "

Each of these storis supposedly contained a link to the Telegram channel of the series (apparently, hence the praise of the creator of the platform). Of course, the advertisement of Netflix nonexistent project in non -existent celebrity posts with a multimillion -dollar audience did not bring subscribers to the channel. Judging by the TGSTAT service, the account owners artificially wound the number of readers at the beginning and at the end of July, and even then at the peak he had a little more than 5700 subscribers. At the same time, all records of the channel have from 100,000 to 250,000 views, but they were wound, which is also visible in statistics on TGSTAT.

Multivest

"Checked" before had The case with the fake storiz, which were mainly aimed at discrediting Ukraine and President Vladimir Zelensky. Among them were like ordinary screenshots of accounts Media, establishments And brands, and fabricated videos stars. In the case of a fake series about the IOC, it was the story of celebrities that were used especially actively (not forgetting, of course, at the same time support And nothing Not supportedbut very Popular statements The fact that Zelensky uses drugs). Moreover, at some point, people who are responsible simultaneously for the spread of this narrative and for the promotion of the series began to purchase real video views from the stars on the service Cameo And to mount a story about the Ukrainian president from them. We tracked seven similar videos with celebrities, on which, according to our calculations, about $ 2000 were spent. Then on the already established traditions The creation of such video features and even a documentary series accused the BBC journalist. That is, even the authors themselves, who for months created fakes, eventually indirectly admitted that there is no Cruise project about the IOC.

In total, almost two dozen fake photos, screenshots, images and videos that were sent to the Cruise pseudo -documentary discovered. In the summer and autumn of 2023 they were published with a frequency of about once a week, but sometimes more often. Note that the list can be incomplete, because we could miss something in the stream of thousands of Z-channels (which are simultaneously grateful for help-every time in the publication there was a reference to the “fall of the Olympics”, we immediately understood that we were the next fake).

• June 22: the fake video of Al Jazeera about Titan and Ukrainians appeared, where they showed the poster of the series and brought a conspiracy the version of the sinking of the vessel. Our analysis is possible Read here.

• June 30: in the Telegram channel "Why are women kill crests"(2300 views) posted a fabricated screenshot of the article on the website of the publication The Local, which said that Thomas Bach allegedly supported the activists who arranged the Promotion of the Koran's burning in Stockholm. In the lower left corner of the image, the advertisement of the “first documentary work of Tom Cruise” is noticeable.
  
  Such a news notes on the publication website No And it was not, but they distributed a screenshot according to the already classical scheme: the picture is supposedly Send anonymous subscriber. Many fake channels are well known to regular readers “tested”: “”Own correspondent"(105,000 views),"Signal"(78 000), Asiatude (67,000), "Russia 2.0"(62 000),"Urgently, now"(42 000), Kremlin_russian (29,000), "Waiting"(8500)," "Vzvod"(6500) and"Tasking News"(3400).

• July 4: there was a fake cover of the French magazine Courrier International with a caricature on Vladimir Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron, at the upper part of which was the phrase “Netflix causes damage to the reputation of the IOC”. Our analysis is possible Read here.

• July 6: in the Telegram channel "Before everyone else. Well, almost. Special operation"(12,000 views) the next fake screenshot from anonymous subscribersThis time allegedly made on the website of the Canadian newspaper La Presse. It was reported that Putin wants to rename the Canadian national dish, because due to the consonance of the name with the name of the Russian president, the owners of restaurants, where such a position is on the menu, receive threats. On the right side of the picture in the "Restaurants" section, a new advertisement is noticeable: “Favorite restaurants of Tom Cruise. Where I dined Tom Cruise while working on the film "The Fall of the Olympics". How Netflix created the most ... "
  
  On the site those news about Cruise And renaming There are no dishes. The fake, among others, distributed channels "Zlaya Pruf"(145,000 views),"Soldiers of good luck"(40,000),"The sons of the monarchy"(9600)," "Bear"(7400)," "V Kremlin's hand z z"(7300)," "Vzvod"(6600) and"Tasking News"(3000).

• July 7: in the Telegram channel of the leading "Channel One" Olesya Loseva (8900 views) There was a fake cover of the American satirical magazine Humor Times. The caricature shows businessmen Ilon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, beating Zelensky, and in the lower right corner a QR code is located with reference to the Olympics Has Fallen Telegram channel. Our analysis is possible Read here.

• July 13: several Telegram channels at once considered the previously mentioned statement by Umar Kremlin about Olympus a reference to the series of Tom Cruise.
  
• July 20: on the Internet, fabricated storytails Elijah Wood appeared with a video message to Zelensky, in which the actor allegedly advised the Ukrainian president to throw drugs and lie down in Rehab. In the video there was a logo of the TMZ tabloid. At the same time, other materials from the Instagram of the "Lord of the Rings" star were included in the viral video. In particular, he allegedly advertised the pseudo -documentary, writing: “Tom Cruise, bravo! Netflix, bravo! The best show that I watched! " Our analysis is possible Read here.

• July 27: the fake video of the Reuters agency spread, in which boxer Mike Tyson also allegedly suggested that Zelensky take a rehabilitation course. At the end of the video, its creators recalled the fake advertising of the series from Wood. Our analysis is possible Read here.

• August 2: a new fake video appeared with the next fabriced appeal of the star to Zelensky. This time, the authors of the fake chose the actor Dina Norris from the series “All Great” and the AFP agency. At the end of the video, posts with the advertisement of the series Cruise are also shown. Our analysis is possible Read here.

• August 7: A fake video of supposedly from the French edition of 20 Minutes came out, which spoke about Ukrainians requiring the Tetris game. At the end of the video shows a screenshot Pages The Apple TV+ streaming service - judging by it, the Cruise documentary can now be seen there (in the invented world of the authors of the Netflix fake, it seems that I sold the rights to the series). Our analysis is possible Read here.

• August 16: The next non -existent storiz with an appeal to Zelensky, this time from actor John K. Mcginley, who became famous thanks to the role in the series “Clinic”. The artist allegedly wrote: “Surprisingly, Tom! On x*y baha. " Our analysis is possible Read here.

• August 23: again fake storiz, now with the appeal of the widow of Elvis Presley, who allegedly sent Cruz a heart. Our analysis You can read here.

• August 31: Another fake appeal to Zelensky, this time from the bassist of the System of a Download Shavo Odajyan. This fake was made in two versions at once - with the Reuters logo and without it. In the second case, the teaser of the series begins in the words of the musician about the fall. “Having looked at this in Rehab, you will understand that your problems are nothing compared to those that Thomas Bach and his dirty corrupt officials will have,” the authors of Fake wrote on the face of Odadjyan. Our analysis.

• September 8: Reuters fake video appeared (there is naturally on any resources of an agency of such a video, naturally) that in fact the creation of appeals to Zelensky and the Cruise film was a journalist-factory Shayan Sardarizade from BBC Verify. However, such news almost did not interest the Z-blogers-for example, channels were written about it "Optimist in civilian clothes"(9600 views) and"Life at ra)))"(540).
  
  The authors of Fake invented the following story: “The BBC publication sued its employee. BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizade used his position in the company to promote a personal project. The journalist ordered American celebrities to appeal to Vladimir Zelensky with a recommendation to undergo drug addiction treatment. The stars published sponsorship appeals on Instagram. Eliji Wood and John McGinley actors were deleted by the service. Shayan Sardarizade used this tactic to promote his own project “The Fall of the Olympics”, telling about corruption within the International Olympic Committee. All custom -made appeals were attended by advertising banners. The Fall of the Olympics is a Netflix documentary, which is the storyteller of the Deepfake version of Tom Cruise. The actor agent and representatives of Netflix deny their involvement in the project. The evaluative cost of the advertising campaign is $ 1 million. The name of the customer of the project remains unknown. Elijah Wood, John K. Mcginley, Dean Norris and Priscilla Presley took part in the promotion of the series. These details became known thanks to the agent of boxer Mike Tyson, whose image Shayan Sardarizade used without prior agreement. Mike Tyson himself did not know anything about it. ”
  
  Probably, they did not even talk about this story in those few Z-channels where they previously wrote about the series, because in this way they would admit the spread of fake.

• September 13: it seems, the last fake appeal to Zelebriti, which we were able to track. The heroine this time became Kate Flenner, playing Meredith Palmer in the series "Office". In the fake itself, as usual, there is nothing original: the actress allegedly advised Zelensky to go to the clinic and published a video on her Instagram, where the Cruise series was also posted, and this video allegedly in the Z-channels Send subscriber.
  
  The earliest post with a fake appeared in the channel "Before everyone else. Well, almost. Special operation"(10,000 views), also a fabricated video posted channels"Heaven is"(145,000),"Uncle Glory in Telegram"(67 000), TG Team Russia (47,000), "The aggregator"(15,000),"V Kremlin's hand z z"(6700), Dankest (6600), ""Bear"(6400) and"Tasking News"(3000). Fake was placed in the channel "Optimist in civilian clothes"(10,000), where a few days earlier, the so -called exposure of the author of such appeals came out.

• October 6: in the Telegram channel of the TV presenter Olesya Loseva (12,000 views) three appeared at once false Screenshot of French sites Sud Owest, L'essor Issor and France Bleu. This time, fakes directly concerned Thomas Bach, who allegedly angered the French with such a joke about Invasion of bugs In the capital: “The Olympic Games in Paris will be held. But if the situation does not change, then the scabies for speed will become an Olympic discipline. ” Among other channels, this fake was published "Kholmogorov"(10,000 views) and"Conservative"(4500). The two images were again attended by the advertisement for the Fall of the Olympics.

• October 18: in the Telegram channel "Sheikh Tamir"(111,000 views) laid out a fake video of the French television company Canal+. It is reported that the IOC allegedly considers the introduction of restrictions for the national teams of Israel and Palestine. “At the 141st session of the Committee in Mumbay, they discussed the situation between Israel and Palestine. According to the results, the director of the Communications Committee said: “The IOC Executive Committee expressed concern about the events of recent days and sympathy for all the victims of this tragic incident. The committee came close to the possibility of applying the removal procedure for both representatives of the Israeli and Palestine national teams and in relation to fans.” <...> The Olympic Committee is afraid of the repetition of the 1972 terrorist attack in Munich, ”the post, which also appeared in the channels"Thoughts Kedmi"(35,000 views),"Antifses"(22,000),"Picnic on the sidelines"(16,000) and Zanoza (7900).
  
  At the end, the authors spoke about the imaginary successes of the series: “It was previously reported that the Netflix documentary dedicated to the International Olympic Committee entered the top 10 most visible TV shows of 2023.” This fake appeared Soon after the IOC announced the removal of the Russian Olympic Committee.

Reviews

In mid -November, almost five months after the appearance of the first publications about the series with Tom Cruise, it became known that the IOC knew about the existence of a campaign discredited on the Internet. On the organization’s website even released A separate statement regarding all these fake news, which was also reported by the leading world media (for example, Politico And The New York Times).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently encountered a number of false news directed against the committee. These messages are distributed in Telegram and other social networks in several languages.

For example, the quotes allegedly belonging to representatives of the IOC were recently fabricated and added to fake news notes to give them legitimacy.

This is not the first time when the IOC is faced with misinformation campaigns directed against the organization in the media space. Earlier this year, a whole documentary project was created with slanderous content, a false narrative and false information, which used the voice of the world famous Hollywood actor generated by artificial intelligence. The series was removed from the social networks platforms because of its fabricated and slanderous nature (at the time of writing this analysis, it is still available in Telegram.-Approx. Ed.). All this looks like part of an organized misinformation campaign.

The IOC will continue to monitor the situation and take measures if necessary.

Moreover, how found out “Verified”, back in the end of July, representatives of the IOC filed a complaint against the owner of the Olympicsfallen.com domain due to a violation of copyrights for the use of symbols and the spread of misinformation. As the defendant, a certain Lucas Wolfs from the Netherlands was indicated, which, however, did not take part in the proceedings. According to the decision, which is October 5 Accepted The Commission of the Center for Arbitration and Internal Affairs of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the controversial domain name is transmitted to the applicant, that is, the IOC.

CliffHanther?

The Olympics Has Fallen documentary is one of the largest, multi -level, confusing and, of course, creative falsifications of the Prochremlian fake factory. At the same time, it was mainly distributed only as a secondary plot, supplementing other (mainly dedicated to Ukraine) fakes, so international media wrote about this only after the IOC statement. In the Russian -language segment of the Internet, individual (and few) notes on the fabricated series were also not popular. However, this is easy to explain: the series itself was published in English without Russian subtitles, which seriously limited the number of potential viewers in the domestic market.

The question remains: for whom, according to customers and performers, was this documentary was designed, promoted mainly through Z-channels? For example, foreign users could easily go to Netflix and make sure that there is no such series. People who speak English could understand that Tom Cruise’s fake voice sounds in the rollers, and an ordinary Russian -speaking user of social networks would hardly have become four English -speaking videos with a total timing for almost 40 minutes. Although complex and laborious work was done, the spread of the final product left much to be desired (when compared with some other popular narratives).

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Olympics Has Fallen (Telegram)