Since June 22, after President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili pardoned Nika Gvaramia, the founder and former Director General of the private TV company Mtavari Arkhi, a number of manipulated photos have been circulating on social networks to discredit Zourabichvili.
On 23-25 June, a photo of a woman who looks like Zourabichvili was posted on the Facebook page შავი მედია (“Black Media”) and several Facebook accounts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The photo shows a scantily dressed woman sitting cross-legged at a table with a cup of coffee on it. Some Facebook posts say that this woman is Salome Zourabichvili, an expellee from a Parisian cabaret who deserves to be impeached for both her past and present deeds.
The photo circulating on Facebook has been programmatically edited and distributed with a false description. It is clear from the original photo that the woman is not Salome Zourabichvili but someone else, presumably a porn actress.
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The woman pictured in the original photo is not Salome Zourabichvili, but presumably a porn actress.
The posted photo can be found using various search engines. A Yandex image search shows that the photos of this particular woman, taken on the same day, can be found on various porn and dating websites. On each of them, the woman’s name and surname/ pseudonym were indicated differently.
The oldest version of the original photo has been available on the pornographic photo website since 2014.
It is clear that the woman depicted in the original photo is not Salome Zourabichvili but someone else.
The photos of this woman can be found on various dating and pornographic sites.
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Other manipulated photos have also been posted to discredit Zourabichvili
To discredit Salome Zourabichvili, other programmatically manipulated images depicting the president and Nika Gvaramia were also posted on social media. One depicts Zourabichvili breastfeeding Gvaramia. This picture was first posted on the Facebook page არ აგარევინებთ [“Won’t let you make a mess of things”] and then shared by სურენ სააკიანი [“Suren Saakian”].
Facebook page არ აგარევინებთ [“Won’t let you make a mess of things”] also posted another manipulated photo showing Salome Zourabichvili and Nika Gvaramia getting married.
The Facebook pages პოლიტიკური სატირა / Political Satire, and ტერენტი გლდანელი [“Terenti Gldaneli”] posted the identical photo and text demanding the impeachments of Salome Zourabichvili
Salome Zourabichvili has been the target of discrediting campaigns in the past as well. For example, a critical speech by President Salome Zourabichvili at Georgia’s Independence Day ceremony on May 26 was followed by discrediting posts on anonymous Facebook pages associated with the Georgian Dream. For a full account of the campaign, see Myth Detector’s article Discreditation Campaign against Salome Zourabichvili.
About the sources
The Facebook Page შავი მედია [“Black media”] was created on January 19, 2014. It was originally titled “Do you want me to swear at you?”. Under “Categories,” the page is listed as Comedian, although it has recently been sharing posts from pages related to the Conservative Movement (ალტერნატიული ტელევიზია [“Alternative Television”], კონსერვატიული მოძრაობა დედოფლისწყარო [“Conservative Movement of Dedoplistskaro”]).
Black Media also publishes anti-Western memes and posts. It is worth noting that the last post on the page in 2021 was against the Covid-19 green status passport.
Some reports published by the page in the past have been flagged as false by Myth Detector.
As regards the Facebook users ზოიძე ფრიდონ [Zoidze Pridon], Davit jebashvili, and Levan Tavdishvili, they often post misleading/false information, which has repeatedly been fact-checked by Myth Detector.
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