On November 6, abcnews.com.ge published a news article titled “Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Unexpected Decision has Become Public Just Now! I Would Like to Calm You Down, Brothers…”. The article, based on a confidential source, indicates that Bidzina Ivanishvili plans to allocate up to one billion lari for the health and economy sectors. His decision is positively assessed in the article.
Abcnews.com.ge: “Although Bidzina Ivanishvili does not appear in front of TV cameras, but as one source explained to us, he is ready to allocate up to GEL 1 billion for the economy of Georgia and, most importantly, for the well-being of our people. He is ready to allocate any amount of funding to the medical sector – whatever amount is needed. ‘I have mentioned already and will repeat that I will never abandon our people’ – sincerely, Bidzina Ivanishvili. Continue reading”.
The phrase “continue reading” redirects those who want to read more to a personal blog. The given blog displays an emergency statement by Giorgi Gakharia about COVID-19-related restrictions and regulations from September 8.
The news by abcnews.com.ge lack evidence. In fact, it is impossible to find a source that would confirm Ivanishvili’s decision to allocate GEL 1 billion. The website abcnews.com.ge is a clickbait that has already disseminated manipulative and disinformative news about Ivanishvili’s promises and other issues on many occasions.
The information published by abcnews.com.ge is not confirmed by other sources. Bidzina Ivanishvili has not publicly made a statement about allocating funding for the health sector and the economy. The given website has already disseminated similar information about Bidzina Ivanishvili’s allocated funds and aid.
The website published a misleading article in March 2020, during the corona pandemic, about Ivanishvili allegedly allocating GEL 500 million for the health sector – something that Myth Detector already wrote about. Besides publishing the manipulations about the domestic policy of Georgia, the website has become a source of conspiracy theories and disinformation about the coronavirus being man-made. It has also published articles that were using Vladimir Putin’s image for spreading misleading news about the normalization of relations between Georgia and Russia and the return of the occupied territories.
- “Bait-Putin” and clickbait that promise us the return of Abkhazia and Samachablo.
- Is Trump surprised by Georgia’s results in its fight against the coronavirus?
- Fake BBC, CNN, ABC report that a Harvard professor has been detained due to creating COVID-19.
- Is Iraq free from the coronavirus?
- Who faked the public defender’s statement about banning “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”?
About abcnews.com.ge
It is noteworthy that abcnews.com.ge is a hybrid of a clickbait and a covert website. Moreover, the given site, with the aim of misleading the readers, resorts to cloning and uses the name of ABC News – a famous American media outlet. According to registrator.ge, the website was created on March 20, 2020. It is owned by Giorgi Melikidze, an individual entrepreneur, who is also the owner of newpost.com.ge and features among the partners of timesnews.ge.
Dissemination on social media
According to CrowdTangle, the abcnews.com.ge article had up to 29,300 views and 700 interactions as of November 10. It is noteworthy that, according to the search tool, the article was first shared in the Mtavari Channel Facebook group on November 6 and in a Facebook group called “მიხეილ სააკაშვილთან ერთად-სახლში ❤🇬🇪” (With Mikheil Saakashvili at home ❤🇬🇪) on November 7. As of now, both shares have been removed.
Archive link to the article: https://archive.ph/CVP17
The article uses data by CrowdTangle, a Facebook search tool
