Russian propaganda created a large-scale disinformation campaign to discredit the Olympics 2024 in Paris. For instance, to “demonize” the games, Russian propagandists spread a video with a USA Today logo in which the American Church of Satan supposedly thanked Olympic Games organizers for a wonderful opening ceremony.
Our fact-checking department has analyzed this video.
What happened?
At the beginning of August, the X account Brainless Partisans that systematically spreads disinformation directed at the French audience, published “news” about the American Satan Church thanking organizations of Olympics 2024 for a “magnificent opening ceremony” in Х (archive), Telegram channels (1, 2), and Russian social media, VKontakte.
As “evidence,” the news contains a video with the USA Today logo. In the video’s titles, they write that “high priest of the Church of Satan” Peter H. Gilmore expressed his excitement over the Olympics opening ceremony, calling it “a celebration of epicureanism and freedom from an entrenching divinity” and the best mass international event for the last 50 years.
“Satan is opposed to God just as God is opposed to human freedom. This scene shows that France chooses man over following the fettering demands of God,” Gilmore is “quoted” in the titles.
Moreover, posts state that the Church of Satan supposedly published a detailed breakdown of the Olympics Opening ceremony in their podcast Satansplain, where she analyzed the ceremony as a recreation of The Last Supper mural.
Russian Telegram channels that systematically spread disinformation picked up the news and spread it (e.g., “Medved” (Медведь), “Bocharik (aga, tot samyi)” (Бочарик (ага, тот самый), “Artamonov: Oborona Rosii” (Артамонов: Оборона России), and others.)
The news was also shared by Russian media targeting foreign audiences (“Pravda Moldavia” (PRAVDA Молдавия), Russian YouTube bloggers, users of VKontakte, and other Russian web portals. In X (Twitter), the video was reshared the most in the French segment of the platform, e.g., by Céline d’Arc (archive), Renard Jean-Michel (archive), Pascal Laurent(archive), and many others.
Analysis
First, we analyze the video spread by the news. The video has a graphic that’s similar to original graphic elements employed by the USA Today news company and the Brainless Partisans’ account logo, which is a source of the video. The video has titles in English and identical voiceover in masculine voice. Also, French subtitles are present in the video.
We’ve analyzed the video and discovered that the video is an edited product consisting of widely accessible photos and videos from different time periods. As such, the video has shots of a photo of The Feast of Acheloüs art, a fragment from the Olympics opening ceremony, screenshots of Satansplain’s page, photography of a statue of Satan, and other publically accessible videos.
To promote a “encouraging” statement from the head of the Church of Satan, propagandists used old materials that aren’t related to Olympic Games: Peter H. Gilmore’s photo and a fragment of a video where Gilmore is telling about his composition, a replica of classic sonnet-allegro.
As the next step, we’ve checked the official resources of American news media company USA Today: its website and social media profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Flipboard, and YouTube. We have found out there’s no corresponding news about the satanic church thanking Olympic Games’ organizers on USA Today’s official resources.
We also checked through the Church of Satan and its current head Peter H. Gilmore’s resources, and Satansplain’s website and social media pages (Satansplain publishes Church of Satan’s podcasts.)
The Church of Satan published a debunking of the disinformation related to the Olympics on X. They posted a statement from Peter H. Gilmore, where he says, “I have no interest in the Paris Olympics. Having not viewed it, I could not possibly comment on, nor endorse, the opening ceremonies. I have not been interviewed by anyone concerning this subject. Statements posted anywhere claiming otherwise, are lies.”
A similar debunking statement was also published by Satensplain on X. They noted that after the opening ceremony of the Olympics, as of August 5, only one episode, #68, was released, and there has been no mention of the Games whatsoever.
As such, we’ve confirmed our analysis, which is indicative that the video is another fabricated creation of a Russian disinformation campaign created to discredit the Olympics 2024 in Paris.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Anna Ormanzhy
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