On December 20, 2019, Facebook removed 396 assets on its core platform, including pages and groups engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior focusing on Georgia, with a particularly pro-Government or anti-opposition angle in terms of content.

Ahead of the late 2020 parliamentary elections, the political situation in Georgia is extremely and increasingly polarized. An allegedly unfair 2018 presidential election, excessive use of force against protesters, and a perceived failure to fulfill promises by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire oligarch at the head of the ruling Georgia Dream Party, brought thousands of protesters to the streets in late November as they believed hard-won democratic reforms to be at risk. According to the latest International Republican Institute opinion survey, the ruling party has lost popularity with its support falling from 26 percent to 23 percent, while 41 percent support the united opposition parties. Meanwhile, 68 percent of respondents said the country is moving “in the wrong direction,” with 71 percent naming the poor economic conditions within the country as the main problem facing the country.

It was in this political setting that Facebook removed pages linked to the ruling party within the Georgian government, the Georgia Dream Party. In its announcement, Facebook stated:

These Pages posed as news organizations and impersonated political parties, public figures, activist groups and media entities. 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. 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.

The DFRLab had access to a subset of 261 assets of the overall set prior to removal but could not directly corroborate Facebook’s assessment about the governmental affiliation nor its connection to Georgian advertising agency Panda.