{"id":25728,"date":"2019-01-30T09:08:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T05:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mythdetector.ge\/myth\/disinformation-in-georgia-a-threat-and-no-entertainment\/"},"modified":"2022-09-06T17:13:19","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T13:13:19","slug":"disinformation-in-georgia-a-threat-and-no-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mythdetector.ge\/en\/disinformation-in-georgia-a-threat-and-no-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Disinformation in Georgia: a threat and no entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"
Toupee, or no toupee, that is the question?\u00a0 When it comes to the term \u201cfake news\u201d in Western Europe countries, people tend to think of funny Donald Trump memes, seductive click bait headlines or overheated facebook debates. In fact deeper researches on the topic proof that in other parts of the world there is more behind it. In some countries fake news are not something you can easily smile away. In these places fake news can be described and treated as planned and constructed disinformation campaigns. Campaigns which are strong enough to cause damage to a nation\u2019s public opinion, minority groups or even its powerhouses. One of those affected countries is Georgia. Here disinformation is a hybrid threat to the country\u2019s society.<\/p>\n
The root of the problem<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest problem with disinformation on social media is that it is growing\u201d, says Mariam Tsitsikashvilii. Tsitsikashvilii is one of many fact-checkers based in Georgia\u2019s capital Tbilisi. She and her team from factcheck.ge monitor the usual suspects of disinformation and analyze false facts. The team focuses its working field on facebook since it is the most used social network in Georgia. The website gs.statcounter.com<\/a>\u00a0states that in November 2019 around 81 % of the total social media usage in Georgia is connected to Facebook, while Youtube (3.07%), Twitter (2.71%) and Instagram (2.27%) all rank below. As the two online portals statista.com and napoleoncat.com<\/a> also analyzed, Georgia had 2 398 000 facebook users in June 2019. Which is around 62 % of the countries population.\u00a0 On these grounds, a modern day factcheckers goal is to give people an idea on how information can becontinuously manipulated on the country\u2019s digital source.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n In Georgia fake news, stories, lies or hoaxes are created to misinform or deceive the readers. The topics mainly target the west, US, NATO, EU and identity issues. While the cooperation between fact-checkers and facebook is barely a thing, the biggest task while compensating the weaknesses of the network is the passive attitude of the government. From a fact-checkers perspective Georgia as a whole nation is not responding enough to the threats. \u201cThe steps by the parliament are either not existent or not effective\u201d says Mariam Tsitsikashvilii. Even though the dimensions and speed of disinformation show how important the topic is to Georgian citizens. As the National Democratic Institute discovered<\/a>, half of the interviewed Georgians believe that Russia spreads\u00a0lies and disinformation while promoting its interests. Yet Georgian media is named as a source of disinformation more than Russian media is.<\/p>\n According<\/a> to NDI\u2019s public opinion research from May 2018, the majority of people associate disinformation with national TVs, saying that they have politically motivated reporting. \u201cThis is, of course, a challenge but on the other hand this provides media pluralism\u201d, says Sopo Gelava, a fact-checker working for the online platform MythDetector which is part of the Media Development Foundation in Tbilisi. Associating disinformation with this and not as the part of Russian hybrid warfare is a challenge. Indeed numerous disinformation, fake news and discrediting posts on facebook are spread by pro-government facebook pages<\/a> and different fake accounts. Besides that there are Russia affiliated Georgian media outlets which disseminate fake stories: Georgia and the World, TV Obiqtivi, News-front Georgia, Sakinformi, just to name a few.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sopo Gelava states that disinformation on social media is part of a systematic discourse. \u201cSometimes it might have economical purposes\u201d, she explains. Therefore ad fake news is spread by click bait sites. Later these posts get multiplied in different spam groups.<\/p>\n