Microsoft factors to Russian pretend information marketing campaign, Moscow denounces “slander” | EUROtoday

Published on : 04/06/2024 – 00:47Modified : 04/06/2024 – 12:29

3 minutes

The Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), managed by the American know-how big, cited on Tuesday June 4, two teams of Russian affect, Storm-1679 and Storm-1099, associating “old tactics with artificial intelligence (AI) to carry out harmful activities” in opposition to the Paris Olympic Games.

The content material broadcast goals, amongst different issues, to defame France, its President Emmanuel Macron, in addition to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in keeping with a message posted Sunday on the Microsoft web site.

The Games formally open on July 26 and finish on August 11.

According to Microsoft and the MTAC, Storm-1679 “also seeks to sow fear to dissuade spectators from attending the Games.”

To do that, this influential group notably posted deceptive movies on-line. One of them pretends to be content material produced by the France 24 information channel and claims that 24% of tickets offered have been returned for concern of an assault through the Games, which is fake.

To haveFrance 24 sufferer of a “deepfake”: the misinformation continues to flow into on the internet!

Another video topic presents itself as a message from the CIA (the primary American intelligence company) and the French Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI). He advises Internet customers to not go to France because of the danger of assault.

As for Storm-1099, it makes use of a community of 15 websites with content material written in French and which current themselves as information media, which they don’t seem to be.

The Kremlin denies and denounces a “slander”

These platforms additionally warn of attainable assaults through the Games, criticizing Emmanuel Macron and his authorities, accused of indifference to the issues of the French.

MTAC expects these actions to “intensify” because the opening ceremony approaches.

The IOC has repeatedly denounced a “campaign of disinformation and defamation led by Russia”.

In June 2023, Storm-1679 posted an anti-IOC mockumentary on-line titled “The Olympics Have Fallen”, impressed by “The Fall of the White House” (2013) and utilizing synthetic intelligence to mimic the voice of American actor Tom Cruise.

Later Tuesday, Russia assured that it “does not interfere” in France and denounced a “Russophobic campaign in the media”, in response to suspicions concentrating on it after the invention of coffins on the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

“Russia has not and does not interfere in France’s internal affairs – our country has more important priorities,” the Russian embassy in Paris mentioned in an announcement. He spoke of a “dangerous hysteria for Russian citizens in France, in particular for the embassy staff, and expressed his solidarity with “the French residents who have been the topic of a witch hunt just because they’re in favor of preserving the long-standing bonds of friendship between our nations.”

The embassy known as on the French authorities to “put an end” to this “anti-Russian information campaign”.

“This is nothing other than pure slander,” mentioned Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov throughout a press briefing, assuring that these accusations “don’t have anything to do with actuality”.

With AFP