Parliament Speaker: ”Facebook’s adoption of more democratic fact-checking is positive step”

On Tuesday, Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, welcomed Facebook’s decision to replace fact checkers with Community Notes, while expressing concerns over the previous involvement of two local NGOs in the fact-checking process.

Papuashvili commended Facebook’s new approach, which he compared to X’s Community Notes system, as a move that prioritizes facts over perceptions or disinformation.

“Facebook’s adoption of a more democratic fact-checking practice, similar to X’s Community Notes, is a positive step forward in strengthening the value of facts over perceptions or outright disinformation,” Papuashvili stated.

However, he criticized the platform’s past reliance on two Georgian NGOs, GRASS (Georgia’s Reforms Associates) and the Media Development Foundation, for fact-checking responsibilities. He argued that these organizations’ credibility had been compromised due to their leadership ties to former government officials from the Saakashvili administration.

“Just consider this: Facebook, to this day, relies mostly on two Georgian NGOs—GRASS and the Media Development Foundation—for fact-checking. Both of these NGOs were paid millions by foreign governments for this work,” Papuashvili said, questioning their impartiality.