A video spreading on X and Telegram of a man purporting to be a Hamas fighter threatening the Olympics in Paris is part of a Russian-linked disinformation campaign meant to disrupt the event, according to researchers at Microsoft.
On Telegram, Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq denied the video had come from Hamas, calling it a forgery.
Researchers from Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, who reviewed the video at NBC News’ request, said it appears to have come from a known Russian disinformation group, noting that details of a previous video about Ukraine match it.
I’m still annoyed that Russian athletes get to participate at all after all the bullshit Russia has pulled. I know it would suck for the Russian athletes, but participation isn’t a right, especially for nations that are actively bad faith participants.
The independent Russian Athletes thing they did for Russia is a compromise, because the IOC is all corrupt as hell and can’t stand losing ANY viewers. They knew that saying “yeah but we don’t care about the thing with Ukraine” wouldn’t fly, so they did that instead (despite a lot of the athletes still doping and not maintaining neutrality on the war like they’re supposed to). I’m honestly mad several countries are allowed to compete under their own flags, including Israel and Iran (ironically, there’s a TON of Iranian athletes competing AGAINST IRAN on the Refugee team this year).