On March 15, the online editions gadacema.ge and fbmediatv.com published information, as if Dutch scientists have found a medicine against coronavirus. Both articles have the identical headlines: “I am too old to stand on the table and jump on it…” – Right at this moment Dutch scientists have discovered a medicine against coronavirus.”
The headlines of the articles are misleading and do not reflect the story given in them, since the scientists, in fact, have discovered an antibody, rather than a medicine against coronavirus. gadacema.ge and fbmediatv.com are the clickbait sites, which try to make money by sensational headlines and the number of clicks.
On March 13, it was reported, that a team of ten scientists from Rotterdam and Utrecht Universities have discovered an antibody, which may be used to defeat the new coronavirus. The information is available to readers in the texts of the articles published on gadacema.ge and fbmediatv.com.
About the clickbait sites
gadacema.ge and fbmediatv.com publish informational articles and position themselves as media. However, they are the clickbait sites, which attract the users’ attention by inviting headlines and visual effects, and try to make money by the number of clicks. The web pages contain the advertisements of 18+ type, as well as tabloid informational materials and sensational headlines.
According to Registrator.ge’s data, gadacema.ge was registered on March 2, 2020, while its owner is the person named sabir qiarimovi. It is the second case when the manipulative material regarding coronavirus has been published on the mentioned web page. On March 11, the web page published disinformation, as if Georgian citizens who travelled back from Italy on a special flight, used violence against a bus driver and ran away on their way to Sachkhere hospital, where they should have been quarantined for two weeks..
Prepared by Tamar Khmiadashvili
Myth Detector Lab
