NGO report identifies 66 Facebook pages used to discredit parties amid upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia
ISFED says that political actors spent more than $320,000 on political ads posted by parties and candidates on Facebook and Instagram during the pre-election period. Photo: bpn.ge.
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The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), an independent not-for-profit NGO, has published its second interim report on social media pre-election monitoring, which identified 66 unofficial, anonymous and false media Facebook pages which have been working during the campaign period to discredit political parties in an organised fashion.
Out of these pages, 36 pages were working against the opposition, critical media outlets, civil activists and NGOs, while 30 tried to discredit the ruling Georgian Dream party.
More than 900 Facebook pages and 11,649 posts were analysed in total during this period.
Pages were used for the following purposes:
- Encourage community polarization on value issues – 69 pages
- Discredit the opposition – 36 pages
- Discredit the ruling party – 30 pages
- False media working in favor of the government – 9 pages
- Support opposition parties – 18 pages
- Support the government - 17 pages
10 pages worked in favor of the Alliance of Patriots which were not anonymous.
Discrediting pages against the government distribute more posts, but the total interaction of posts directed against the opposition is higher,” says the report.
The number of posts and interaction of Georgian Dream support pages significantly exceeds the number of opposition support pages. The difference in the number of interactions is likely related to the sponsorship of the posts, through which a particular post is viewed by many more users,” reads the report.
ISFED says that political actors spent more than $320,000 on political ads posted by parties and candidates on Facebook and Instagram during the pre-election period.
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) has released recommendations ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia. The recommendations are based on an analysis of the work of the electoral administration, the campaign environment, gender and inclusion, media and disinformation and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 66 political parties have registered to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia on October 31. The Central Election Commission also stated that now the registered parties must provide their party lists and majoritarian candidates no later than October 1.
Georgia has drafted a special safety protocol for foreign observers who will monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections in October, Georgian Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze stated earlier today.
Georgian opposition parties have named six of eight joint majoritarian candidates for Tbilisi in the upcoming parliamentary elections in the Autumn.
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia told journalists earlier today that the election campaign of the ruling Georgia Dream party is ‘very open and transparent’. At the meeting with journalists in the western Georgian town of Poti, PM Gakharia denied allegations that the government had been using administrative resources, threats and resorting to vote-buying.
The ruling Georgian Dream party says that the United National Movement opposition party (UNM) has ‘revolutionary headquarters’ along with the official election headquarters which is chaired by former Interior Minister, recently released Vano Merabishvili.
Media polarisation is growing in Georgia and reporting is becoming less balanced as voting day for the parliamentary elections approaches, says the second interim election media monitoring report of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).