The “online” lecture was supposed to start in 5 minutes, when I accidentally checked news and heard that 4800 cases were reported in the country. I was surprised to enter the lecture while a friend sent me a message on the phone: ‘’Do we have fun somewhere today? I imagined where we could have gone,…
Coronavirus pandemic has been followed by a mass infodemic with several interest groups standing behind it. One of the directions of the infodemic includes false treatments, fake recommendations, and unverified protection methods. In Georgia, even doctors often become the source of such fake information, hazardous to human health. Fake news titled “Everything Will End Fatally:…
I had five missed calls and several unread messages from my mom reading – “Jano, if you love me, please don’t go to the movie premiere”. I received the messages on November 8th, 2019. She was asking me not to go to see “And then we danced”, a movie directed by Levan Akin about youngsters …
People have long stopped using landlines, but mine still rings sometimes. We all know who it is—my grandmother. She’s active and curious. Like Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Polly, she enthusiastically collects notes from health magazines and newspapers, and keeps them well organized and guarded. Mostly, it’s on topics like “ how to protect ourselves from not…
Coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied with a dissemination of fake news and conspiracy theories. Georgia was no exception, as various groups, including pro-Kremlin, ultra-national, and radical groups have been referring to COVID-19 as an artificially created virus, spreading fear, and associating the virus with the 5G Internet. One of the authors of the disinformation and…
The Richard Lugar Public Health Research Center opened in Georgia in 2011, with funds from the U.S. Government within the framework of the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program. The purpose of the center is to promote public health through detecting and tackling outbreaks of disease. Though the construction of the center was funded by the U.S.,…
A few weeks ago, I came across a strange fake post on a Georgian Facebook page, it looked like this: It was published on November 13, 2019, by a large pro-government Facebook page, Corridor of Shame, which regularly tries to discredit the opposition. In this case, they chose a different target: Myth Detector, a large…
EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM), a civilian monitoring mission, which operates in Georgia since 2008, became the target of organized disinformation and discrediting campaign from Kremlin actors. The new wave of the disinformation launched after the occupational regime of South Ossetia detained EU monitors on the ground of “violation of the state border” on October 24.…
The Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia is a framework for cooperation proposed by the EU to non-EU member states. The agreement advocates for the creation of European standards and includes a range of different areas for cooperation such as free trade, implementation of EU legal practices, visa free movement, consumer protection and reforms…
In Georgia, European Parliament election 2019 has been covered in traditional media outlets, and in online and social media as well. Traditional media outlets mostly focused on the actual election days, while the election campaigns got less attention. The same approach was applied in part of online/social media too. We monitored major TV stations and…