Update: An Identical post with the exact same image was published by pro-government POSTV journalist Natia Beridze, pro-government publication Marshallpress, government supporters (1,2) as well as other anonymous Facebook accounts (1,2)
On April 21, the anonymous pro-government Facebook page “Political Pigsty N5” published a photo of a protester holding a poster with the inscription “No to Russian law! Yes to same-sex marriage.”
The disseminated visuals are photoshopped and the content of the poster has been altered. In the authentic photo, which belongs to the online publication “Netgazeti”, the poster refers to the fight against the law “On Agents of Foreign Influence” and not to the of same-sex marriage.
On April 20, the women’s movement organized a rally called “Women choose Europe!” The march was an action against the law on “agents of foreign influence” adopted by the Parliament of Georgia in the first reading, which was also covered by the online publication Netgazet. One of the photos of “Netgazeti” shows one of the participants of the protest holding a poster with the following inscription in English: “Like the Women of the First Republic, We Fight for Georgia’s Future Now!”
As a result of altering the mentioned photo, the content of the poster has been changed, which aims to undermine the public protests and manipulate the public opinion.
| Authentic Photo
Source: Netgazeti |
Altered Photo
Source: Political Pigsty N5 |
| Like the Women of the First Republic, We Fight for Georgia’s Future Now!) | “No to Russian Law!
Yes to Same-Sex Marriage” |
The main demand of the protests is for the government to withdraw the law, which human rights defenders and international organizations consider to be restrictive and repressive towards the media and civil society.
In order to discredit the protest against the law, anonymous pro-government accounts have spread visual manipulation before as well:
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.
