This article is part of a partnership with OC Media. You can read the original in English here.
The NGO International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has stated that more than 1,500 fake Facebook accounts were used to artificially generate support for the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili.
According to the organization’s report, the case involves a post by the pro-government TV channel Imedi TV, published on 26 May — Georgia’s Independence Day. In the image, Ivanishvili was depicted alongside national liberation movement leaders Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first president of independent Georgia.
The post triggered a wave of criticism and mockery, garnering thousands of “laughing” reactions. However, according to ISFED, the ratio of reactions later shifted due to the “large-scale and coordinated” activity of fake accounts.
During its monitoring, the organization identified more than 1,500 suspicious profiles. Many of them were created on the same day or within a short interval, published identical content, and followed the same pages. Some used photos of foreign users to conceal their identity, while others used different names but the same images.
In addition, ISFED stated that some of the fake accounts used images generated by artificial intelligence. According to the organization, this points to the existence of a broad network of accounts operating in the interests of Georgian Dream and creating a false impression of high support for the party on social media.
Commenting on the report’s findings, Kakha Kaladze, the Secretary General of Georgian Dream and Mayor of Tbilisi, refused to respond to “speculation.” At the same time, he stated that Bidzina Ivanishvili’s name “will indeed be written in golden letters in the history of Georgia.”