“For any healthy-minded person, all of this is logical. It is only a problem for people who spend their time insulting some citizens from behind a keyboard, who represented nothing in life, represent nothing today, and whose only ability is to insult people and damage their dignity via Facebook,” Georgian Dream MP Levan Machavariani said, commenting on the detention of journalist Vakho Sanaia.

In his assessment, “it is very logical that the law should act against one person damaging another person’s dignity through social media.”

“There are official statistics, for example, in Britain, where in 2024 more than 12,000 Britons were [prosecuted] merely for publishing posts containing conservative content — and we are not even talking about insults. For any healthy-minded person, all of this is logical. It is only a problem for people who spend their time insulting some citizens from behind a keyboard, who represented nothing in life, represent nothing today, and whose only ability is to insult people and damage their dignity via Facebook. Fine, let this be a problem for them, but they will have to pay the fine, and if they do not pay it, there are other types of sanctions. This is one of the components of bringing fascism and political terrorism in Georgia to an end,” Machavariani said.

Speaking on the same issue, Machavariani noted that taking such steps was necessary to ensure that the amount of hatred seen in the public sphere would no longer exist.

“The phrase that ‘a person should serve a 14-day prison sentence because of a post’ is very scandalous and sensational. But if we look at the broader context and consider what we activated the law against, we see that for years people have been confronting one another through Facebook posts, brutally insulting and humiliating each other in public. This is one of the directions of this political terrorism — the same fascism, radicalism, and extremism — that we must fight. Accordingly, the establishment of the division by us, followed by judges imposing fines, is one mechanism for preventing all of this. I cannot assess the judge’s decision — if anyone is dissatisfied, it should be assessed by the Strasbourg Court, where, in every dispute, Georgian justice has prevailed by 100 to 0. If a person is not afraid of a fine, commits the offense again, and does not pay the fine, what are you supposed to do? The judge has no other option left. We need to look at the broader context — taking such steps is necessary so that the amount of hatred we see in the public sphere no longer exists,” Machavariani said.

For reference, today, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced journalist Vakho Sanaia to 14 days of administrative detention over a social media post concerning Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili and MP Vladimir Bozhadze. The decision was issued by Judge Zviad Tsekvava. The Division for Combating Hate Speech, established within the Ministry of Internal Affairs to respond legally to the post, had appealed to the Tbilisi City Court.