On 17 November, a social media card was posted in the Facebook group “Bidzina Ivanishvili & Media,” featuring a photo of U.S. Congressman Joe Wilson and a quote attributed to him: “Georgian opposition members pay me money, and that’s why I criticize Bidzina Ivanishvili. Otherwise, the man is a patriot of Georgia, unlike a scumbag like me.” The design used for creating the information card imitates that of the media outlet Mtavari.
A falsified quote attributed to Joe Wilson is being circulated on social media using Mtavari’s social media card style. The U.S. Congressman has made no such statement. The social media card is fabricated.
No statement can be found in open sources in which Joe Wilson talks about receiving funding from Georgian opposition figures or about Bidzina Ivanishvili. The quote has not been published by Georgian-language online media (1;2) or television stations (1;2). Moreover, no statement of similar content has been posted on the Congressman’s Facebook or X pages.
The Mtavari social media card is fake: in the place where the media outlet’s logo should be, the Georgian flag has been inserted. However, careful observation of the design clearly shows that the original version of the social media card belongs to Mtavari. In fact, the card used is the social media card originally published by the media outlet on 8 November, which contains a different quote. The Joe Wilson statement published by Mtavari concerned the meeting between the foreign ministers of Georgia and China. The actual Joe Wilson quote on the genuine social media card was: “Unsurprisingly, the anti-American Georgian Dream regime has gone running to its Chinese Communist Party friends, solidifying its relationship with this sick regime… The Georgian Dream lies about wanting a reset with the U.S.”
It is noteworthy that an identical social media card was posted by Facebook user Ramaz Margvelashvili, whose similar stylistic fabricated cards – shared in a pro-Mikheil Saakashvili group (“Mikheil Saakashvili – Georgia’s Hope”) – have been repeatedly debunked by Myth Detector in the past. In this case, the Facebook user notes in the description of the falsified social media card that it is satirical.
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