FB Removes Georgian Web Content for ‘Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior'

Facebook has removed 39 accounts, 344 pages and 13 groups for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” in Georgia targeting domestic audiences. 

In a statement released on December 20, Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Facebook’s Security Policy, explained that the people behind this activity used fake accounts to increase engagement on their content and manage pages.

"These pages posed as news organizations and impersonated political parties, public figures, activist groups, and media entities”, Gleicher said.

"The page admins and account owners typically posted about domestic news and political issues such as elections, government policies, public officials, criticism of the opposition and local activist organizations”, he added.

Gleicher said that the Facebook team has identified these accounts through their investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region and their investigation benefited from public reporting.

"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation linked this activity to Panda, an advertising agency in Georgia, and the Georgian Dream-led government", he said.

He further noted that the Facebook team is “constantly working to detect and stop this type of activity” because they don’t want their services to be used to manipulate people.

One of the ruling Georgian Dream party leaders, Mamuka Mdinaradze, wrote on Facebook in response that the ruling party has nothing to do with the group mentioned in the Facebook statement. 

However, he said that the majority of the pages that have been removed seem to be either supporting the Georgian Dream or sharing negative information about the oppositional United National Movement  (UNM) and its 'satellites'. 

By Ana Dumbadze