Discrediting and Propaganda Messages

Reactions to the video released by the State Security Service of Georgia about the anticipated Civil unrest 

On September 18, the State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) published a video on its Facebook page, asserting that a coup and violent change of the government were planned in the country. The information suggested that the anticipated date for these actions was linked to the European Commission’s assessment announcement and the European Council’s decision on granting Georgia the EU Candidate country status.  

On September 25, citizens of Serbia arrived in Georgia by invitation of the East-West Management Institute (EWMI) through the USAID program. Their objective, as stated in the training description, was to share diverse approaches to non-violent activism, self-organization, and mobilization of supporters with representatives from the fields of culture and art. The training course, conducted by the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), took place from September 26-29. On October 2, the SSG published another post linking the CANVAS training to an imminent violent overthrow of the government.  

Following this post, anonymous pages and pro-government media became active, virally spreading the video published by the SSG and information about the alleged coup being prepared in Georgia. These anonymously operated pages accused the opposition party, 'United National Movement,' and affiliated individuals of 'preparing young people for a bloody confrontation.' 

On Telegram, the pro-Russian group 'Alt-Info' created a channel named 'Anti-Maidan,' urging the Georgian public to mobilize and warning of a potential repetition of the Maidan protests in Georgia. The channel actively disseminates phone numbers and solicits financial assistance from those who cannot contribute physically.

 

Discrediting Salome Zourabichvili in parallel with the impeachment discussions.  

At the start of September, the chairman of the ruling party, 'Georgian Dream,' announced the commencement of the impeachment procedure against the president. 'Georgian Dream' accused the president of violating the constitution. The first session related to impeachment, attended by a representative of Salome Zourabichvili, took place on October 3 in the Constitutional Court.   

Concurrently with the session, discrediting photo and video manipulations of Zourabichvili were disseminated on various anonymous and discrediting pages.

The mocking of Mikheil Saakashvili following publication on his personal life. 

On September 28, Mikheil Saakashvili published a post on his Facebook page concerning his personal life. Subsequently, mocking photo manipulations were circulated on anonymous and discrediting pages. The published posts were also promoted.

 

 

About weekly review

Within the social media monitoring, ISFED presents the weekly overview and describes the messages that echo the political issues, virally circulate on social networks (more or less) during the week, and more than one actor, account or page is involved in its distribution. In some instances, the most interactive posts of the week are presented.

The organization uses the Facebook monitoring tool- Crowdtangle - for data processing and relies on an existing, up-to-date database of pages/accounts involved in discrediting campaigns.

The pages are available on the platform - www.disinfoobserver.ge

 

The social media monitoring program of the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) is supported by the European Endowment for Democracy (EED). This publication is solely owned by ISFED and may not reflect the views of the donor