Olympics Committee Utilizing Copyright Claims To Censor Backlash and Free Speech

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(Elias Irizarry, Headline USA) Many conservatives responded in outrage after the July 26, 2024 opening ceremony of the Olympics in France featured a re-enactment of the Last Supper alongside drag queens, bare testicles and other controversial additions.

The next morning, the International Olympic Committee utilized a third-party company named Athletia Sports to censor free speech and criticism of the performance, utilizing copyright claims to take down posts on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Users on the platform received a standardized letter from an individual named Jonathan Schmitz, claiming to represent the International Olympic Committee through the power of attorney.

“I am writing to you on behalf of my client, the International Olympic Committee. Through our monitoring programme we have become aware that you are displaying and/or offering IOC copyright-protected audio-visual content,” Schmitz wrote.

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“Yours faithfully, Jonathan Schmitz,” the letter concluded.

A user by the name of Amuse publicized the claim on July 27 after he created a custom edit comparing the performance to the Last Supper. Later, he had his account locked as a result of a copyright claim made on his video.

“ATHLETIA SPORTS on behalf of The International Olympic Committee is actively filing DCMA take down requests with X,” wrote Amuse in a post on the website. “I created one custom edit comparing the last supper and the opening scene. X locked my account and removed the video.”

“While my use clearly fits within ‘fair use’ the IOC is clearly using the DCMA as a way to silence critics.”

Another user by the name of Nick Sortor corroborated Amuse’s claim, noting that his account has also been locked after publicly criticizing the performance.

“The Olympic Committee is DESPERATELY trying to scrub these images from the internet, and even had my account LOCKED this morning,” said Nick Sortor. “Don’t let them memory hole their blasphemy.”

Soon after the claims were publicized, users on the site noted that Elon Musk, the owner of X, had unfollowed the Olympics on the platform. Musk has championed himself as a “free speech absolutist,” since taking over the website in 2022.

Users noted that the Olympics is seemingly attempting to take down any evidence of the performance, likely in response to the backlash.

Alex Jones, host of InfoWars, compared the incident to the Bud Light boycott when the beer company saw its sales plummet as a result of a promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Follow Elias Irizarry at twitter.com/eliasforsc.

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