Social Media Monitoring

Posts against Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty regarding the article published on the king Erekle II

 

On November 7, Radio Liberty published an article entitled "Was Erekle's wife unfaithful or fake news in the 19th century?", which talked about the myths related to the third wife of Erekle II. Pro-government expert, Levan Nikolaishvili, accused Radio Freedom of trying to discredit King Erekle. Soon after, a post was published on the Georgian Dream managed page SinamdvileshiGD (In Reality), accusing the media outlet of creating a fake story about Erekle II and repeating a rumor created by Russia in the 19th century. This post was also published by the news page of POSTV.

 

 “Anti-Georgian Propaganda” 

Anti-American messages of People's Power: the US Embassy is trying to introduce a model of liberalism in Georgia, the goal of which is to "denationalize" the country and to deprive society of national and Christian values.

On November 2 and 7, the movement created by politicians separated from the ruling party, People's Power, published a new letter and statement. The movement noted that one of the most important directions of its future activity is to "expose the aggressive campaign carried out by the so-called liberals." According to the movement, in the name of liberalism, the US embassy in Georgia is trying to introduce a radical ideology that has nothing to do with true liberalism. Its main goal, according to them, is to "denationalize" Georgia and to deprive society of national and Christian values. People's Power also spread homophobic messages in the letter.

In the statement released by the movement, the USA is mentioned as the primary source of global tyranny, on which "the current hegemony of the so-called liberals is based." Along with the US embassy, the United National Movement, non-governmental organizations and critical media outlets were the targets of the attack. All of them were named as favorites of the US embassy and were also mentioned as being involved in a campaign against state institutions and the church. They also mentioned that the orders of the US Embassy was to incite radicalism through specific media outlets, which is used as the main tool to change the government against the will of the people.

In the statement, the US Embassy was again accused of rigging the results of the 2020 parliamentary elections. The statement also contains messages against the American organization "National Endowment for Democracy (NED)", since they were implementing a project supporting Georgian media. 

POSTV covered the statements of People's Power both on television and on social media pages. The letter of the movement was also published on the false media page - Guria Times • Guria Times.

The same narrative was seen in the statements of other pro-government people. For example, Nana Kakabadze stated that "the era of pseudo-liberals is coming to an end, both in Georgia and in the world."

 

 “The US embassy with the help of its favourite NGOs has not only forged the PVT results but was also campaigning the fake campaign. “Georgian Dream” has not enough courage to confront the Americans – People’s Power”

 

Unified attack of pro-government experts on Carl Hartzell and Andrius Kubilius

On November 8, the former executive director of the European Business Association, David Lee, announced that he resigned as a result of pressure from the former EU ambassador to Georgia, Carl Hartzell. According to Lee, his posts, which contained anti-opposition and anti-NGO content, caused dissatisfaction. According to him, European Parliamentarian Andrius Kubilius insisted on Hartzell to break off cooperation.

On the same day, pro-government experts responded to Lee's statements and used his messages to attack Kubilius and Hartzell. Experts claimed that some European MPs and diplomats are campaigning against the Georgian government. David Lee's statement was confirmed by Irakli Kobakhidze, who noted that "Hartzell and Kubilius have done worse things."

 

Discrediting individual MEPs due to amendments made to the working version of the European Parliament report, linking them to the "United National Movement"

 

On November 7, amendments prepared by individual MEPs were added to the annual report on the implementation of the EU Association Agreement. The amendments included Mikheil Saakashvili's release from prison as a precondition for receiving candidate status. A post was published on the anonymous page Political Absurdity (პოლიტიკური აბსურდი),in which individual MEPs were accused of having ties with the UNM, as well as making amendments harmful to Georgia in the annual report on the implementation of the association agreement. In particular, Andrius Kubilius and Rasa Juknevičienė were named as allies of the opposition. The Imedi TV story mentioned that there are many factual inaccuracies in the working version of the report, with which part of the opposition was speculating. Pro-government expert Levan Nikoleishvili called the mentioned MEPs "enemies of our country" who "demand the release of the criminal Saakashvili and express concern that the Parliament did not include ISFED in the working group. According to him, their actions arouse anti-Western sentiments and are fighting against the legitimate government.

 

 “The amendments made by the European Parliaments MEPs - Allies of the UNM”

 

Insulting posts of MP Aluda Ghudushauri

 

Insulting videos of MP Aluda Ghudushauri were spread on anti-government pages, after Ghudushauri's statement in which the job of a Glovo courier was mentioned in a derogatory way.

 

 

Accusing Davit Kezerashvili in the so-called Call Center case

 

On November 9, the Prosecutor's Office of Georgia announced that a transnational crime was detected in the territory of four countries relating to the Call Center case. After that, defamatory posts against Davit Kezerashvili were published on anonymous pages, in which he was blamed for the Call Centers case. The post mentioned that Kezerashvili is financing the United National Movement and Formula TV with money stolen from Europeans.

 

 

 

About the Weekly Review

Within the social media monitoring program, ISFED presents the weekly overview and description of messages that echo political issues, (more or less) virally circulates on social networks during the week, and involves more than one actor, account or page in its dissemination. In certain cases, the most interactive posts of the week are presented.

For data processing, the organization uses the Facebook monitoring tool CrowdTangle and relies on the existing updated database of pages/accounts involved in discrediting campaigns. 

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