Azerbaijani journalists and rights defenders claim pro-government trolling in social networks

The Azerbaijani authorities try to manipulate the public opinion by disseminating fake news via the Internet, discrediting Western democratic institutions and organizing trolling attacks on the pages of their critics in social networks. This was stated by journalists and human rights defenders interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

"The Azerbaijani segment of the Internet and social networks are often used to discredit opponents in politics and business," believes Osman Gyunduz, the head of the Azerbaijani non-governmental Multimedia Centre for Information Technologies.

Facebook is used in Azerbaijan to attack critics of power, journalist Khadidja Ismayilova believes.

According to her, the pro-government "trolls" became more active with the beginning of the pre-election campaign. In particular, they write a lot of comments under the posts of journalists, opposition politicians and political emigrants who live in Europe and severely criticize the authorities.

Attacks are committed against the pages criticizing the authorities with more than 100,000 followers, noted Alesker Mamedli, a member of the Platform for Civil Society.

"Trolls post their comments almost under all my posts. Sometimes they write threats, and they often insult me and accuse me of 'national betrayal' and 'complicity in the West'," added Ogtai Gyulyalyev, the head of the Public Alliance "Azerbaijan without Political Prisoners".