DISCREDITING AND PROPAGANDA MESSAGES SPREAD ON FACEBOOK: OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 18
Discrediting Salome Zourabichvili Following the Constitutional Court's Decision on Her Violation of the Constitution and the Impeachment Discussion in Parliament
On October 16, the Constitutional Court found President Salome Zourabichvili in violation of the Georgian Constitution. Following this decision, discrediting messages against the president on Facebook became notably more active. Anonymous pages opposing the opposition published videos aimed at discrediting the president, with the content being coordinated and spread across Anti-Opposition and Pro-government groups through various accounts. Additionally, photo manipulations targeting Zourabichvili were widely disseminated.
On October 18, the president attended the parliamentary discussion on her impeachment and addressed MPs. Anonymous pages continued to publish video fragments of her speech to further discredit Zourabichvili. These pages emphasized the president's alleged shift in rhetoric towards Russia. Furthermore, a humiliating photo manipulation of the president was circulated on the page 'Agentura.'
Mocking Mikheil Saakashvili for Expressing Solidarity with Israel
On October 10, during a trial, Mikheil Saakashvili expressed his support and solidarity toward Israel. In response to this, anti-opposition pages 'Agentura' and 'Political Grave N5' published a mocking photo manipulation targeting Saakashvili.
Making fun of Mikheil Saakashvili and Sopho Japaridze about the opening of Saakashvili’s office
On October 10, Saakashvili announced the opening of the 'public office,' headed by Sopho Japaridze—a member of the opposition party 'United National Movement.' As Japaridze stated, the main mission and goal of the office are to pursue a pro-Western political course. To this end, anyone can visit the office for consultations. After the announcement, anonymously operated pages published posts against Japaridze and Saakashvili. The anti-opposition pages 'Agentura' and 'Ar Agarevinebt' released mocking videos of Japaridze and Saakashvili. Additionally, the mentioned posts were distributed by suspicious Facebook accounts in different Facebook groups in a coordinated manner.
Photo manipulations on Viktor Orban’s visit to Georgia
On October 10, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban paid an official visit to Georgia and met with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. Per information from the Georgian government, during the visit, the Georgian-Hungarian intergovernmental commission assembled, and the Georgian and Hungarian sides signed a memorandum. After the meeting between Gharibashvili and Orban, Anti-government anonymous pages “Blue Donkey,” “Union of Like-minded People – Georgia,” and “Political Vector” published mocking photo manipulations.
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
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