Democracy Research Institute: ‘nationalistic, anti-liberal content is especially popular among far-right groups in Georgia
DRI studied and analysed 20,235 posts of 12 far-right group leaders and 15 far-right groups on different Facebook pages, as well as 2,317 articles published by 9 online media platforms. Photo: DRI.
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The Democracy Research Institute has summarised the results of 11-month long monitoring of far-right groups disclosure on social platforms and online media, which revealed that nationalistic and anti-liberal content is especially popular among them.
Nationalistic content is particularly characteristic for the following Facebook pages: ‘Turkey is an Occupier’, ‘Silenced Georgians’ and ‘Kardhu’, while anti-liberal content is popular among the followers of the pages - ‘Anti-liberal League’, ‘Alt-Club’ and ‘Geo Pepe.’
Media monitoring revealed that social platforms are one of the main tools for far-right groups for spreading their massages and attracting followers.
Three main characteristics of Georgian far-right rhetoric have been revealed during the media monitoring:
- Arising anti-western sentiments among Georgian population and discrediting western institutions
- Supporting Kremlin politics and spreading pro-Russian messages
- Spreading irrational fears and hatred throughout society using fake information
The key findings have been revealed during the monitoring:
- Far-right groups are tightly connected through the action plans or strategy development processes, who are attempting to demonize the US and spread anti-liberal messages
- George Soros is presented as the main instigator of depravity
- Local and international non-governmental organisations are actively demonized
- The most popular targets for far-right aggression are feminists, immigrants, LGBT community, Muslims and liberals
DRI studied and analysed 20,235 posts of 12 far-right group leaders and 15 far-right groups on different Facebook pages, as well as 2,317 articles published by 9 online media platforms.
The monitoring was conducted with the financial support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in the framework of the project Understanding and Combating Far-right Extremism and Ultra nationalism in Georgia.
A delegation representing the National Democratic Institute (NDI) have arrived in Georgia to observe the pre-election environment ahead of the local government elections scheduled for June 15.
The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) for the first time carried out social media monitoring during the 2018 presidential elections, which revealed that the number of dubious Facebook pages tripled ahead of the presidential election runoff in November.
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), one of the key Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) in Georgia, said that it has identified 14 fake news websites, 15 Facebook accounts, 50 pages and 35 groups spreading disinformation.
Facebook pages created for Georgia were among nearly 300 taken down by the platform on Thursday for misleading users about their origin and purpose while serving social media reach for Sputnik, a Kremlin media outlet.
Georgian civil society and media representatives have urged Facebook to introduce mechanisms for determining the transparency of political advertisements, as pre-election campaigns will soon start in the country and political interest groups and foreign actors are ‘undermining the free, equal election environment by using disinformation’.