Lelo welcomes Facebook's decision to remove false, “anti-Western and anti-state propaganda pages, groups and accounts from its platform.”

"Mamuka Khazaradze was the first who unmasked the offenders behind the cyberattack on TBC Bank and identified the address of the so called troll factory. Unfortunately, then Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi Gakharia cover-up the government-funded criminal group and the case is still uninvestigated. We hope that the operation, carried out by Facebook, is the first step forward defeating the systemic lying and the Georgian society will be involved in this fight, cleaning of the Georgian media space will be continued and we will eventually defeat the hidden enemy, which is washing the brain of people and which are funded from the state budget. Lelo will continue to fight against anti-state propaganda and for a fair information field,” Lelo said in a statement.

Facebook said it had removed 39 Facebook accounts, 344 Pages, 13 Groups and 22 Instagram accounts originated in Georgia.

Today, we removed 39 Facebook accounts, 344 Pages, 13 Groups and 22 Instagram accounts as part of a domestic-focused network that originated in the country of Georgia, Facebook said in a statement.

“The people behind this activity used fake accounts — some of which had been previously disabled by our automated systems — to increase engagement on their content and manage Pages. These Pages posed as news organizations and impersonated political parties, public figures, activist groups and media entities. The Page admins and account owners typically posted about domestic news and political issues such as elections, government policies, public officials, criticism of the opposition and local activist organizations. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation linked this activity to Panda, an advertising agency in Georgia, and the Georgian Dream-led government,” the statement reads.