The Olympic game field for disinformation - Chinese-language rumors about the 2024 Paris Olympics
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games have also turned into a game field for rumors. Though there are some similarities, the rumors circulating in Chinese and English are somewhat different.
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As pro-Kremlin and far-right sources promoted disinformation about potential terrorist attacks on the Paris Olympics and soaring street crime in Paris, Chinese social media echoed the Russian narratives with false stories of frightening crimes and attacks on Olympic athletes in Paris. For example, multiple clips on the Chinese short-video platforms Kuaishou and Douyin conveyed the same story: a boxing coach from an Olympic team was robbed and beaten to death. In a separate incident, the US team’s portable air conditioners were stolen, causing an American athlete to suffer from heat stroke and eventually die in the Olympic Village.
As a matter of fact, no American athlete died from heat stroke, nor did a boxing coach have a violent encounter and lose his life to the robbery incident. During the Paris Olympics, a boxing coach from Samoa passed away, but the cause of death was due to natural causes.
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According to the unfounded stories, French President Emmanuel Macron asked China to assist France with Chinese anti-terrorism technology and maintain security during the Olympic games. For the benefit of the entire world, the Chinese government dispatched 1160 anti-terrorism professionals and equipped the Olympic Games with satellite surveillance systems and facial recognition technology based on China’s big data system. Due to the superior Chinese anti-terrorism team and technology, 120 terrorists were arrested in Paris. The French police were extremely impressed by China’s advanced surveillance and facial recognition technologies. Even Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, acknowledged China’s assistance in keeping the Paris Olympic Games safe.
In reality, the Chinese police did not participate in the multi-national police team at the Paris Olympic Games. According to the Taiwan FactCheck Center’s investigation, almost 1,800 foreign police officers from 40 countries were in France to help maintain security. However, China was not one of the 40 countries. As for the arrest of terrorists, the French authorities did arrest one Russian man for plotting an assault on the Olympic Games. However, there was no mention of more than 120 terrorists being arrested in France thanks to China’s facial recognition technology.
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The Chinese state media has also broken its silence in recent months, publishing articles questioning whether US swimmers used drugs during the Olympics. For example, CCTV produced an article asking “six shocking questions” about “US doping scandals.” One of the questions concerned American swimmers’ purple faces. The story stated that American media outlets purposefully changed the color of photos and made American swimmers’ faces appear white (the original text is “美媒特意调了色，把自己运动员的紫脸P白了”). The piece then contrasted an “adjusted picture” from AP with one from Reuters.
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In addition to Chinese-language coverage, the English edition of Global Times, China’s state media famed for its tabloid-style reporting, published an article about the widespread suspicion caused by American swimmers’ purple faces. Later, the Global Times published another item stating that the US Embassy in China had posted a color-adjusted photo on Weibo to congratulate US swimmers.
Until August 17, when this analysis was written, the US Embassy’s Weibo account had posted a statement that the Embassy did not post photoshopped images. (The Taiwan FactCheck Center is still investigating the claim that the US media intentionally made American swimmers’ faces “look white.” […]) However, social media posts written in English questioning whether the purple faces could be the result of doping appeared on websites such as Reddit, Quora, and TikTok. Some YouTube influencers interviewed experts to explain the causes of purple faces, but others disputed the explanation and argued certain drugs could cause purple faces. The statement from English-speaking YouTubers claiming the purple faces were caused by drugs was again translated into Chinese and quoted by Chinese netizens.
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