The likeness of Tom Cruise has been used in a Russian disinformation campaign targeting the 2024 Olympics, a report from Microsoft has found.

In mid-2023, Telegram was overrun with posts promoting a film called Olympics Has Fallen.

Users on the messaging platform were encouraged to scan a QR code, which led them to a Telegram channel of the same name.

Once in the Olympics Has Fallen channel, people were encouraged to watch the film, which is reportedly similar to the Hollywood blockbuster, Olympus Has Fallen, which starred Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman.

Russia is banned from competing in the Paris Olympics because of the war in Ukraine.

However, Olympics Has Fallen utilised AI-generated audio to impersonate the voice of Tom Cruise for the documentary’s narration, which takes aim at the International Olympic Committee’s leadership.

The Microsoft Threat Analysis Centre (MTAC) tracks Russian influence actors, like Storm-1679 and Storm-1099, which have been central to the country’s attempts to undermine the Olympics that will be held in Paris from July 26.

Olympics Has Fallen

The poster for Olympics Has Fallen bares a resemblance to Olympus Has Fallen, with Cruise’s face seen on the left.

It seems it’s not just Cruise’s likeness that is being used to promote the “film” that purports to be produced by Netflix.

In the Telegram channel, it appears there have been several posts that are made to look as though the actor penned them himself.

“Mr Bach, I knew you would stalk and destroy mirrors of my site in Britain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and other countries,” a post signed by “Tom and the Netflix team” says.

“The Netflix team and I created thousands of “OLYMPICS HAS FALLEN” mirrors on Telegram. You’re on one of those right now. A cartoonish Hollywood villain Thomas.”

Many of the posters used to promote the film also feature the Netflix logo and one even features fake reviews from the likes of the BBC and The Washington Post, all outlets giving it five stars.

Additionally, the channel has promoted fake social media posts from celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Mike Tyson and David Beckham, praising the fake film.

The fake documentary even has fake reviews.

Russian actors promote terrorism fears

It wasn’t just the fake Tom Cruise film Microsoft looked at in its Threat Intelligence Report.

According to the report, mid-2023 was when Storm-1679 and Storm-1099 pivoted their attention to not only the 2024 Paris Olympics, but also French President Emmanuel Macron.

“These ongoing Russian influence operations have two central objectives: To denigrate the reputation of the IOC on the world stage; and to create the expectation of violence breaking out in Paris during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games,” Microsoft said.

Storm-1679 has also been disseminating content to deter people from attending the Olympics.

Deceptive videos suggest that trusted sources are putting out information suggesting a terrorism attack is to be expected during the event.

One video purported to be from Euro News claimed the anticipation of terrorism had resulted in Parisians buying property insurance.

Another clip impersonating France24 claimed 24 per cent of people had returned their tickets out of fear.

Storm-1679 also impersonated the the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the French General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), by issuing a fake press release in video form.

The message of the video was warning people to “stay away” from the Olympics, due to the risk of a terror attack.

The Olympics will kick off in Paris in July.

Efforts to ramp up

The opening ceremony will happen on July 26 and until then, MTAC fears the Russian campaigns will only “intensify”.

“Predominantly French-language activities will likely expand to English, German and other languages to maximise visibility and traction online and the use of generative AI will also likely increase,” MTAC theorised.