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Georgian Political Parties and Online Social Network: Politics as usual? 

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of the ruling or financially strong opposition movements why they should spend 

their money and energy on advertising. They do not believe in the benefits of 

advertising, and they are certain that it is a waste of time and effort. 

As claimed by one interviewee, “Among Georgian politicians, Speaker of 

the Parliament Bakradze pioneered placing ads on Facebook. He was followed 

by others. Now Bakradze is seen among Facebook ads to a much lesser extent 

than Saakashvili and Ivanishvili, who most likely spent much more on ads”.

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Likes are not good indicators of popularity. According to the experts, in the 

Georgian context, fake profiles make it easy to generate fake likes. For instance, 

during a famous online competition between the personal pages of President 

Saakashvili and his main opponent, Ivanishvili, each of them received 4,000-

5,000 likes every day, which is odd for a country like Georgia, which only has 

approximately one million active Internet users. In reality, the likes count for 

nothing unless there is a real user behind each account. It seems to be a common 

practice for Georgian politicians to generate fake likes. According to some 

media reports, in 2012, public servants and employees of state-run organisations 

were ordered by their superiors to establish at least ten accounts each to generate 

a large number of likes for the president’s page. In the same vein, when the 

chairman of parliament, David Bakradze, launched a virtual election of the 

parliament speaker, according to media reports, students of one of the Georgian 

schools were asked by officials to visit and “like” Bakradze’s page. As a result, 

this campaign received negative feedback and lost users’ trust.

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 Similar cases 

were reported by the experts interviewed during the survey. Most of these 

experts shared the view that likes do not define the degree of popularity of 

Georgian politicians and do not characterise the performance of politicians.     

As explained by one interviewee, “The government orders civil servants to 

‘like’ certain Facebook pages (several years ago)... I am worried because we are 

talking about ‘liking’ not institutional FB pages but individual ones. For 

example, (civil servants are ordered) not to like the FB page of the ministry of 

education but Shashkin’s (the minister’s) page”.

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The experts also recalled an example in which Georgian politicians used 

children for political purposes. This mainly occurred in the framework of the 

ruling party’s activities. Usually, political party members ask children to create 

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 Interview conducted with D. P., male, 11 May 2012

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 Interview conducted with S. L. male, 2  June 2012

37

 Interview conducted with D.K., female, 24 April 2012

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Kornely Kakachia, Tamar Pataraia 

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fake pages and “like” one particular page, as in the above mentioned Bakradze 

case.

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Several of the experts interviewed during the research admitted that 

opposition leaders were also engaged in falsifying the number of likes on their 

pages. “During one night, the number of likes on Ivanishvili’s (the leader of the 

opposition coalition) Facebook page reached 250 thousand, and later, this 

statistic became available to users”.

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 Moreover, the Georgian experts noted that 

several American and Chinese companies are known for selling “likes” on the 

Internet. Thus, “likes” should not be regarded as reliable indicators of 

popularity. Furthermore, the government usually pays little attention to public 

opinion expressed through social media. 

Conclusion 

Georgian political parties seem to prefer Facebook to any other social 

network available in Georgia. However, data on social media monitoring shows 

that parties do not use the potential of social media efficiently. The results 

showed that the relatively popular parties GD and UNM used social media 

features and platforms more than other political actors. Despite this finding, 

there no clear signs of the established use of social media as a political 

communication strategy. Georgian political elites were sceptical of the role of 

social networks and their potential to help win more supporters and increase 

their ratings. Some parties claimed that online political activity, either on 

Facebook or other social networks, was simply a waste of resources because it 

could not and would not help to win more votes. Television and visits to 

constituencies to speak directly to the people were identified as the only 

efficient ways to sway neutral voters. 

The empirical investigation demonstrated that Georgian political parties 

fail to utilise the full range of application options for communication offered by 

the social network. Parties use social networks mainly to distribute information 

rather than generate new voters by using communicative styles that engage 

discussion and dialogue. Additionally, the study demonstrated that the intensity 

of engagement in social media platforms and social networks is not directly 

linked to the political performance of political parties, although no political 

party succeeded without more or less active Facebook campaigns.  

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 Interview conducted with A.T., female, 5 July 2012

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 Interview conducted with S.L., male, 2 June 2012

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