Statements

On July 9, 2026, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) released the findings of its investigation into over 1,500 fake accounts operating on Facebook. As of July 22, the majority of these accounts are no longer searchable on the platform. Specifically, follow-up monitoring revealed that out of the 1,551 inauthentic accounts identified in the study, 1,343 have been deleted or deactivated.

These accounts were part of a large-scale, coordinated network examined by ISFED. They were used on May 26, Georgia's Independence Day, to artificially inflate the "like" reactions on a post published by the UK-sanctioned propaganda media outlet TV Imedi. This post, titled "35 Years Since the Restoration of Georgia's Independence," featured Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream political party, alongside leaders of the Georgian national liberation movement, Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

The investigation revealed common characteristics among many of the accounts: they were often created on the same day or within short intervals, utilized similar images, followed identical pages, shared the same posts, and exhibited other signs of coordinated behavior. This type of Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) directly violates Facebook’s policies, which is why Meta systematically removes such networks. Over the years, Meta has deleted dozens of inauthentic networks operating in Georgia under this policy.