Discrediting and Propaganda Messages

Messages against the “United National Movement” related to the 20th anniversary of the “Rose Revolution” and ongoing conflict between current and former party secretaries.    

On 22nd  November, the “United National Movement” party shared a manifest on Facebook related to the 20th anniversary of the “Rose Revolution”, representing the party’s principles, vision, and ideology. Party members signed it and agreed on several points, such as power consolidation and legitimacy between the party secretary and the political board. The Manifest was not signed by the party’s former secretary Nika Melia. Current party secretary Levan Khabeishvili said, that Nika Melia did not represent UNM and was no longer a member of the “United National Movement” party.

Later, discreditable and mocking posts were published by anonymous Facebook pages related to that discord. The main message of these photo manipulations was that Nika Melia was kicked out of the party by Levan Khabeishvili.  

“Melia kicked out by Khabeishvili_”                                                                                            “ *Nats Wars* “

On 23rd November anonymous Facebook pages spread discrediting messages against the “United National Movement” party. The mentioned pages referred to the “Rose Revolution” as the “Thorn Revolution” and called it the “Beginning of the villainy”.  Identical messages were shared by TikTok accounts operating with matching names. 

“20 years went from the “Thorn Revolution”. Still, “United National Movement” tries to represent 23rd November as a positive event in Georgian history.

Georgian people have realized that it was the beginning of villainy.”

“What brought “Thorn Revolution” to Georgia” & hashtags: #Saakashvili; #killers; #regime; #revolution; #Girgvliani; #Robaqidze

 

Discreditation of Mamuka Khazaradze related to his business work 

Anonymous Facebook pages that operate against oppositional parties, were actively sharing video and photo manipulations. In these given posts they mentioned Mamuka Khazaradze in a negative context and mentioned his past “suspicious” activities. Photo and video manipulations spread by Facebook Page “Agentura” were also shared massively in different Facebook groups. 

“Mamuka Khazaradze – Loan Shark”

 

Discreditation of President Salome Zurabishvili and media representatives

On 26th November President Salome Zurabishvili hosted media representatives under the campaign called “Our Voice To Europe”. Later, anonymously operating anti-oppositional Facebook pages shared photos from the mentioned meeting and cynically underlined the fact that the President and her guests were opponents in the past. Mocking and insulting videos were also shared on TikTok related to this topic by anonymous accounts. 

Over and above, on 21st November President Salome Zurabishvili shared a post on her private Facebook profile about the loss of her dog, which became another reason to mock the President, so the Facebook page “Political Pigsty #5” and other discrediting pages shared sarcastic posts related to that event. 

“I am not lost, I left myself – said the dog”

 

Mocking Georgian Government for sharing photos related to taking part in opening hotel “Paragraph”

On 21st November hotel “Paragraph” was opened in Tbilisi. Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Gharibashvili also gave a speech at the opening ceremony. The post which was published by the Facebook page of Government of Georgia contained not only the ceremony but also hotel room and restroom photos. This became a reason for sarcastic da cynic posts created by anonymous anti-governmental, satiric Facebook pages.

“how much does a room cost?”                                                                                                                                          “Hotel Russia”

 

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