NGO report identifies 66 Facebook pages used to discredit parties amid upcoming parliamentary elections in Georgia

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.