On September 17 and 15, 2023, a fake Facebook account published alleged quotes from the chairman of “Georgian Dream,” Irakli Kobakhidze and Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. According to the post disseminated on the social network, Kobakhidze calls on the supporters of the Georgian Dream to place the Palestinian flag as a “frame” on Facebook as a sign of solidarity; In the second post, Irakli Gharibashvili makes a statement about sheltering 40,000 displaced people from Palestine. Logos of the online publication On-ge are attached to the quotes, giving the impression that the screenshots were taken from the online publication’s website. On October 17, 2023, one of the Facebook users shared an identical screenshot of Kobakhidze.
Irakli Gharibashvili’s quote was also published by the Facebook account “Tea Abashidze (Mriskhane Babuatsvera)”.
The quotes disseminated under the name of Irakli Kobakhidze and Irakli Garibashvili, which feature the logo of the online media On.ge, are fabricated. Statements of identical or similar content are not found in open sources, media outlets, and official Facebook pages of Kobakhidze and Gharibashvili.
The chairman of “Georgian Dream,” Irakli Kobakhidze, did not call its supporters to install the Palestinian flag as a “frame” on Facebook. Such a quote cannot be found on Kobakhidze’s official Facebook page, nor can it be found on the On.ge website.
The quote attributed to Irakli Garibashvili is also fabricated. It should be noted that on October 7, 2013, Irakli Garibashvili responded to the attack on Israel on social network X (formerly Twitter) and expressed solidarity with the State of Israel.
About the Source
Fake Facebook account Bitsadze Nana systematically publishes fake information about members of the government (1,2). In 2020, the page “Who’s Who” – (Vin Vin Aris) studied the mentioned Facebook account and found that it steals photos of Альона Тимончук.
The account “Bitsadze Nana” is connected to the second Facebook account “Mriskhane Babuatsvera”, which is managed by Tedo Abashidze. Tedo Abashidze publishes fake quotes of various politicians with ironic content, although he does not indicate that the information is satirical, while some Facebook users perceive the posts as real news.
Posts disseminated by “Bitsadze Nana” have been verified by Myth Detector a number of times in the past. See:
- Fabricated Posts in the Name of Baia Pataraia and Iago Khvichia (Georgian)
- Photofabrication, as if a War Veteran was Arrested for Demanding the Release of Ex-president Saakashvili
- Fabricated Posts in the Name of Kobakhidze about Saakashvili (Georgian)
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
