Medvedev’s Facebook page blocked for Georgians

With Russian soldiers in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a group of Forum.ge users proposed to mark the Defender of the Fartherland Day on February 23 by posting anti-occupation comments on Dmitry Medvedev’s Facebook page.

Cyxymu (Georgian blogger who was a target of series of attacks on social networking sites Facebook, Google Blogger, LiveJournal and Twitter, taking the latter offline for two hours on August 7, 2009) posted a photo about this campaign on Facebook that got attention of many Georgians. More than 200 Facebook users started to post comments and they still keep doing it:

“Дмитрий Анатольевич, я требую вывода российских оккупационных войск из Грузии!”

“Dmitry Anatolyevich I demand to withdraw Russian occupational forces from Georgia!”

Georgia: Virtual Parliamentary Speaker Election

Ahead of a parliamentary election in Georgia set for October 2012, David Bakradze, Chair of the current Parliament, is currently the most active member of the ruling party on Facebook. His official page, with 27,526 likes at time of writing, includes photos of visits and meetings as well as of his family. Bakradze has also launched a game called Elections where each person liking his page can run for position of virtual parliamentary chair.

Abkhazia Presidential Candidate Sergei Shamba Goes Online

Three candidates are competing this week for a presidential post in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. The Central Election Commission predicts 70% turnout on the ballot that will be held on August 26, 2011. According to BBC:

At least 130,000 people were registered to vote but, our correspondent says, an estimated 40,000 ethnic Georgians living in the region were mostly prevented from voting because they do not have Abkhaz passports.

Social Media in Georgia

According to a study by ACT (Analysis and Consulting Team), which is one of the leading Georgian marketing research & consulting companies, 25% of Georgians are social media users.

Georgia: Government 2.0

Also posted on Global Voices.

Various agencies and officials in the Georgian government are increasingly embracing social media and Web 2.0 tools in order to communicate with the country’s computerized population. As the technology develops and more Georgians join social media sites, it becomes clear that the government intends to directly connect with its citizens. The leading reformer in the region, Georgia follows a world-wide trend of digitization and e-government by taking concrete steps online.

For example, citizens can download the driver’s license preparation test from the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, register and declare their property on the Revenue Service’s website and, in February this year, Transparency International Georgia, with the support of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation in Georgia, launched Chemikucha.ge, a local version of the British FixMyStreet.com, an online platform enabling citizens to report problems such as potholes or garbage collection.

Social networks, social revolution

Yet again, Al Jazeera proves that it is one of the best mediums out there. Latest episode of their Empire is about social networks and new media’s impact on turmoils in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries. The episode takes a look at tweets, SMS messages, Facebook updates and blogposts.

Facebook in Georgia [Infographic]

Explanations:

1) There are lot of fake Georgian profiles. Because of this, percentages might be insignificantly different.

2) Many people mentioned in this infographic are represented by more than one page. Ones with highest number of fans have been selected for this statistics.

3) All images are copied from the above mentioned pages.

4) Not all the pages are official.

5) Information is gathered through various sources, like Facebook’s advertising statistics, Socialbakers, Alexa.com and many others.

6) Latest information on the internet penetration was released in 2010. Probably, the number is higher today but it is unknown.

7) The calculation of Facebook users by the end of 2011 is based on the growth of Georgian users for past 6 months and is based on the assumption that the growth will continue.

It took me 3 days, 2 cups of coffee, thorough research and 70 Photoshop layers to compile this infographic. Let me know if you have any additions, suggestions or questions.