The NGO International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) has identified a coordinated network of 424 inauthentic Facebook accounts that artificially boosted posts by Georgian Dream leaders.
The accounts were reacting positively to posts by Georgian Dream leaders, including Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, Parliamentary Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, and parliamentary leader Irakli Kirtskhalia.
Meta hasn’t responded to the study, but has previously blocked accounts that ISFED identified as bots.
Many of the posts that the network amplified dealt with similar themes: criticism of the 4 October ‘peaceful revolution’ in 2025, negative depictions of EU relations, and criticism of Western partners.
Papuashvili dismissed the findings in response to a question from opposition-leaning media outlet TV Pirveli; the parliamentary speaker suggested that NGOs could be creating such accounts themselves and then identifying them. He claimed that Georgian Dream had 1.2 million genuine supporters, a figure he said had remained consistent for 14 years, and accused one of TV Pirveli’s main donors, Mamuka Khazaradze, of having an interest in fabricating support. Khazaradze is also chair of the opposition Lelo party.
ISFED found that 424 of the accounts they studied were created on 25–26 August 2026, with 303 created on 25 August and 109 the following day. The organisation said their Facebook identification numbers were close to one another, suggesting the accounts had been registered in bulk within a short period.
Of the 424 accounts, the watchdog found that 295 used AI-generated profile pictures, while 298 had private profiles. ISFED also identified 22 accounts using pictures of well-known athletes, actors, and directors.
The organisation found several signs of coordinated activity suggesting that they operated as bots. For example, the accounts appeared in identical order in lists of people reacting to at least 10 posts, with groups of accounts repeatedly appearing together across different posts. ISFED said this suggested that the accounts were liking posts in coordinated groups rather than acting independently.
Many of the accounts also followed the same Facebook pages. For example, 235 followed a page called ‘Tbilisi news’.
Counterintuitively, the ‘Tbilisi news’ page, created on 3 September 2026, does not publish news about Tbilisi. Instead, it posts English-language content about artificial intelligence in business and social media automation.
While most of its posts received almost no reactions, two posts published on 7 and 9 October received 352 and 349 likes respectively, without any comments or shares.
ISFED found that the overwhelming majority of people who liked these posts belonged to the same network.
The organisation claims the findings indicated that the accounts were managed from a single centre and aimed to create an artificial impression of public support for the ruling party.
ISFED also identified 11 accounts in the newly discovered network that were created in January and April 2024, around the same time as accounts in a previously identified network that boosted an Imedi TV Facebook post featuring Bidzina Ivanishvili alongside Georgian independence figures Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Following the publication of its investigation into the earlier network, 1,343 of the 1,551 accounts were no longer searchable on Facebook, ISFED reported.
Separately, another watchdog, Myth Detector, which is part of the Media Development Foundation NGO, has identified more than 400 profiles using AI-generated profile pictures and supporting Georgian Dream online during 2026 so-far.