The International Olympic Committee issued an unusual statement on Thursday saying it had been targeted by “fake news posts” that it said contained “defamatory content, a fake narrative and false information.” The elaborate campaign included manufactured quotations from I.O.C. representatives, fake news stories citing those fabricated comments and even a Netflix-style documentary series released online and narrated by a voice purporting to be the actor Tom Cruise.
The I.O.C. said it had been aware for months of the four-part documentary series, titled “Olympics Has Fallen,” and had succeeded in having it removed from a channel on YouTube, the world’s largest video streaming service.