Facebook removes dozens of fake accounts related to Georgian government

Facebook on Wednesday said it had removed 80 Facebook accounts, 26 pages, nine groups and two accounts on Instagram related to the Georgian Dream government, for violating their policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior. 

 

It said the network targeted multiple apps, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, originated in Georgia and focused on domestic audiences, with the  people behind this activity relied on fake accounts to run fictitious personas, manage groups and pages, post, comment, and like their own content to make it appear more popular than it was.

 

“The network operated around the clock to amplify content in support of the current Georgian government, including resharing posts by the official government pages and pro-government media reports. They also shared criticisms of the opposition, particularly during the most recent public protests related to the now-retracted legislative proposal on the so-called “foreign agents law in Georgia”, it said. 

 

The foreign agents bill that was proposed earlier this year by former members of the ruling party who still remain in the parliamentary majority envisaged the registration of domestic organizations as foreign agents if they obtained more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, without specifying allied and hostile states. 

 

The bill was largely condemned as a “Russian law” and was dropped by the parliament in April amid large, public protests.