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On April 30, a Facebook page “კარდჰუ” (Kardhu) published a post about the size of Georgian population. “Kardhu” claims that although the population of Georgia has decreased by 100,000 since 2014 largely due to emigration, the size of Georgian population remains unchanged totaling 3.7 million. The Facebook page cites the increased number of immigrants as...

On April 30, News Front Georgia published an article headlined “Let’s hope, a controversial American medication is not imported and tested in Georgia!” The article is about an antiviral medication Remdesivir produced by the U.S. company Gilead Sciences, which is being tested for COVID-19 treatment. The author of the article accuses the United States of...

On April 25, a news portal Georgian Idea published an article headlined “Great Britain rejects 5G, the company Huawei can no longer carry out infrastructure works.” According to the article, Huawei, which should have been a 5G vendor in Great Britain, can no longer do this work, following a relevant decision by the British Prime...

For economic gains, clickbait sites try to lure audience with clickbait titles and visual effects. Their motivation can be explained by the very interest to get economic benefit. However, there are exceptions to this general rule, when information of political nature is discreetly placed in sensational media content. Furthermore, some links contain malign programs too,...

On April 23-24, websites Hotnews.ge, videosport.ge and wnews.ge  published articles with misleading headlines claiming that nicotine protects against coronavirus. “Cigarette blocks coronavirus: the discovery of the century; what is contained in tobacco that protects organism against viruses – new scientific study” – this is how wnews.ge headlined the article. Hotnews.ge offered the following wording: “Nicotine will...

On April 17, Prof. Zurab Guruli, U.S.-based Georgian doctor, published a post on his Facebook page, where he voiced his opinions about treating COVID-19 patients with Plaquenil in Georgia. The doctor criticized the virus treatment protocol, noting that asymptomatic patients, as well as patients with mild symptoms are being treated with Plaquenil in Georgia that...

Several fake articles have been disseminated recently on social media about the fight against coronavirus. This time, the ground for discussion was homeopathic substances and their effectiveness in fighting COVID-19. For instance, on March 17, Progressnews disseminated an article where a Georgian homeopath, Kakha Sabakhtarashvili, discusses a homeopathic drug with crocodile blood that cures coronavirus....

Facebook group STOP 5G GEORGIA, which claims that the fifth generation wireless communication technology allegedly promotes the outbreak of coronavirus, spreads, along with conspiracy theories about 5G and threat of microchip implants, fake quotations ascribing them to American philanthropist George Soros. On April 21, Facebook user ნუცა ბერის ძე uploaded George Soros image in the group...

On April 20, an online edition alternews.ge published an article headlined “Georgian blood is unique. It may prove useful to fight COVID-19.” According to the article, doctor Dick Longballs from the Virology Research Center in the city of Hartford, the U.S. state of Connecticut, who is involved in developing a vaccine against COVID-19, discovered that...

On April 12, the Facebook page “Politikano” published a post that makes a prediction on the post-coronavirus situation in China. As noted in the post, „analysts and experts suppose that China will be the most operative when entering the post-coronavirus epoch and will further strengthen its economic positions“. Such predictions in Georgian social and traditional...

On April 8, the online edition  “Georgia and world” published an article, headlined “Who and why wants to defeat the church more than the “Covid-19”?”, whose author is Bakur Svanidze. Svanidze writes that after the spread of the coronavirus, an “advanced” part of Georgian society and the “layer of liberasts” have primarily demanded the closure...