On August 15, Nini Khundadze, a supporter of Conservative Movement-Alt Info, who has posted disinformation on numerous occasions in the past, posted a short video, the so-called reels, of the newly-established political party, “Federalists.” The video shows, among others, one of the leaders of the party, Giga Bokeria, speaking about the need to confront and defeat the Georgian Dream party and its founder, Bidzina Ivanishvili. The video then cuts to a phrase by Giorgi Akhalaia, a member of the same party, the last word of whose statement is censored, making it sound like he says, “That’s why we have called ourselves “**derasts” In the caption of the video, the author of the post writes, “What did he say? What do they call themselves?”
The video circulating on social networks, showing members of the political party Federalists speaking, is manipulated. In a fragment of the video, which has been spread after being manipulated, Giorgi Akhalaia says: “That’s why we have called ourselves Federalists.”
On August 15, the newly-formed political party posted a video on its Facebook page. Through this video, in which party members and leaders speak about their goals and vision, the political party informs the electorate about its establishment. In the video, the members explain why they chose the aforementioned name of the party and why they favor a federal organization of the state.
The video clip opens with a speech by Tamar Chergoleishvili, one of the party leaders, soon followed by Giga Bokeria talking about the threat from Ivanishvili and ways to defeat him. The episode with Bokeria is followed by Giorgi Noniashvili, who says that voters need to see an alternative in order to change the government. However, the video circulating on social networks has been manipulated: phrases spoken by Giga Bokeria and another party representative, Giorgi Akhalaia, have been cut out and spliced together. At 1:30 in the video, Akhalaia utters the phrase, “that’s why we have called ourselves Federalists.” However, the last word of the phrase is censored, giving viewers the impression that Akhalai is saying the word “*ederasts,” which is not true.
Similar manipulated videos targeted politicians and political parties in the past too. Previously, Myth Detector has debunked several similar cases:
- MAMUKA KHAZARADZE’S FABRICATED VIDEO CIRCULATING ON FACEBOOK
- MANIPULATED VIDEO OF JAPARIDZE’S APPEARANCE ON THE “LIE DETECTOR” PROGRAM CIRCULATING ON FACEBOOK
- EDITED VIDEO OF JAPARIDZE’S APPEARANCE ON THE “LIE DETECTOR” PROGRAM DISSEMINATED BY AR AGAREVINEBT
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