During the 2024 Olympic Games, videos and screenshots allegedly from an Iranian broadcast of the competition circulated across the RuNet. It is reported that local TV channels are editing the video because the athletes' uniforms do not comply with the laws of the country. We have checked the correctness of such publications.
At the end of July 2024, a short video became popular in the Russian segment of Telegram, in which the exposed parts of the bodies of athletes participating in certain competitions were hidden under black rectangles and stars superimposed on top of the frames. “Nothing unusual, this is just how the Olympic Games look on Iranian television,” claims the Telegram channel “Bottle"(157,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). Channel "Angry Bunny 18+” (66,000 views) added: “According to Iranian laws, only competitions in which athletes wearing hijabs take part can be broadcast on television. Typically, Iranian electronic and print media do not cover international women's sports competitions because their sportswear does not meet established standards." Similar posts appeared in the channels “Heavenly"(161,000 views), "Krusty Krab 18+"(78,000), "Yup"(62,000), "Atheist" (35,000), "What happened?" (34,000), "Awesome Russia"(29,000), as well as in public pages on VKontakte (examples here, here And here).
In early August, publications went viral on VKontakte, which, in addition to the above-mentioned video, featured three more “censored” frames of athletes who were not in that video. For example, similar posts can be found in communities “Killer humor"(236,000 views), "Business info"(195,000), "Infoboom" (93,000), "Gossip Chronicle"(80,000), "Interesting facts" (34,000), "Daily"(25,000), "Egoist"(25,000), "Cheerful student"(21,000), etc.
Video
The 43-second video being distributed shows competitions in three disciplines: high jump, steeplechase and diving. At the same time, the bodies of the athletes are almost completely hidden under dark rectangles or stars, but sometimes these figures do not keep up with the girls, which is why their bodies become noticeable for a moment. In the upper right corner of the video is the logo of the Iranian TV channel IRIB TV3, and the @Mahvareh_News1 watermark appears at the bottom for a few seconds. A profile with the same username on Instagram* actually published a similar video back on July 23, 2024, three days before started Paris Olympics, and his post dialed over 25,000 likes. The caption under the video reads: "With the start of the biggest sporting event of the last few years - the Olympic Games - the television of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not be able to cover the competition due to restrictions and censorship."
The video was widely distributed outside the RuNet, and therefore it was turned Attention AFP fact checkers. They found out that the viral video appeared on the Internet several years ago. For example, with similar comments about censorship on Iranian television, he spread on Facebook* in time 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Thanks to a reverse screenshot search, fact checkers found it on YouTube video clip lasting about 2 minutes, containing scenes from the viral recording. This video was published on the platform back in 2013, and there is a yellow logo visible in the lower left corner. AFP found out that this logo show OnTen - satirical program, prepared Persian service of the Voice of America**. The full scene with the supposed broadcast of the Olympics was shown in Episode 51, which was posted on the OnTen YouTube channel on July 12, 2013, and was later repeated on 57th issue. Also on the channel this fragment published separately and with English subtitles.
The program ridiculed statements by Iranian politicians about sports and women. For example, in response to the idea of the then head of the national media company IRIB, Ezatollah Zarghami, to refuse to broadcast football and volleyball matches, since there might be girls in inappropriate clothes in the stands, presenters offered cut off footage of spectators or replace them with inserts of only men.
Back in 2019, OnTen producer Saman Arbabi, in a commentary to AFP, called that fragment a joke and explained her point: “My show was a comedy show, and the segment was meant to make fun of the Iranian government for not broadcasting women's sports. This segment was a 'suggestion' for those who censor television shows, including women's sports."
According to the agency, Iranian state television is generally very reports little about women's sports. For an athlete to be shown on air, she must be “appropriately» dressed - in particular, wear a scarf on your head and cover your body almost completely. Often, coverage of women's international sports competitions only talks about Iranian participants who have shown high results.
Thus, the video that circulated in the summer of 2024, allegedly demonstrating censorship during the showing of the Olympic Games on Iranian television, is satirical in nature. The original video, in which the athletes are covered with black rectangles and stars, was published back in 2013.
Screenshots
Three screenshots distributed on VKontakte show runners whose exposed parts of their bodies are also covered with black rectangles or stars. However, the relevant portions are missing from both the viral video and the full OnTen release. Moreover, in one of the screenshots in the upper left corner, part of the logo of the Russian TV channel is visible “HD Sports"
According to AFP, social network users shared videos with these frames back in 2019, during the World Athletics Championships, passing in Doha. In the captions to those posts also stated, that this is how women's competitions are censored in Iran. However, user Fake Investigation on the social network X (then Twitter) found outthat was captured on video race, held in 2013 in Paris at a tournament as part of Diamond League.
Using reverse search on key screenshots obtained thanks to the tool InVID, fact checkers have established that it is highly likely that the video is for the first time appeared March 14, 2016 on the Russian-language YouTube channel “LIF Laboratory of Interesting Facts”. The description of the video reads: “Different nations have their own culture and history. What seems familiar to some and is considered the norm, is considered unacceptable by others. Let’s see what the broadcast of women’s sports competitions looks like on Arab TV channels.”
In the comments under the video, one user wrote: “It looks clumsy, so I doubt its authenticity. Where is the video from, give us some proof.” In response, the channel’s authors confirmed that this supposedly Arabic television broadcast was “a figment of fantasy.”
Although it is not known for certain what the inspiration for the “Interesting Facts Lab” video was, it is very similar to the fragment of the OnTen program discussed above. In comments to AFP, show producer Saman Arbabi stated: “They obviously copied our video.”
Thus, the three distributed screenshots also do not show the broadcast of the Olympic Games on Iranian television. The images are taken from a video published in 2016 on YouTube. Its authors themselves denied the authenticity of the recording.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Instagram and Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
**Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation contributed "Voice of America" to the so-called register of "foreign media agents".
Cover photo: social networks / collage “Verified” / OnTen / @lif1827
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