The fake profiles or "trolls" again sparked widespread discussion

Baku/17.04.21/Turan: An article published on April 13 in the British newspaper The Guardian claims that there is a network of trolls in Azerbaijan, which, after six months of bans imposed by Facebook, with the support of the state, revived again and aimed at independent news agencies and opposition politicians.

The newspaper notes that in August 2019, Facebook employee Sophie Young informed her managers and company leaders about the existence of a campaign of persecution in Azerbaijan. However, despite this, Facebook allowed one of the branches of the YAP (Yeni Azerbaijan Party) ruling party of Azerbaijan for 14 months to conduct such a campaign on social networks. On April 14, YAP demanded a refutation of The Guardian newspaper. The Party claimed that the author of the article violated the principles of journalistic responsibility, accuracy, impartiality and good faith.

The party has 760 thousand members, and the presence of such a number of members does not give grounds to say that the party is holding groups of trolls. The statement that the broad support of the YAP and President Ilham Aliyev from the party members is something other than the support of the trolls bears political and legal responsibility.

The ruling party also stressed that in Azerbaijan a network of trolls on social networks was created by the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, in particular through facebook.

Activists, politicians, journalists have also repeatedly stated that for many years there have been many fake profiles in the Azerbaijani segment of social networks, and people hiding under them receive salaries and even have offices.

But who is running these fake profiles? What are they used for? Is there any financial interest here? How does the legislation regulate this issue?

In 2020, Facebook posted on its official website a report on the fraudulent networks of accounts it had blocked worldwide early  in f September and October.

Facebook has blocked 589 accounts, 7906 pages and 447 Instagram accounts due to “coordinated fraudulent behavior,” according to the Azerbaijan section of the report.

Pages resembling the User Profile were reportedly mainly used to reinforce and promote pro-government content.

Elman Nasirov, a member of the revision commission of the New Azerbaijan Party, told Turan that it is not the first time that The Guardian newspaper has disseminated information full of distortions and slander in relation to Azerbaijan and the authorities.

“It is clear to us where they are funded from. Now the ruling YAP is being unreasonably accused of keeping a network of trolls, he said.

In the opinion of the YAP member, this accusation of the newspaper does not stand up to criticism from the point of view that the New Azerbaijan party is the largest party not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the entire South Caucasus.

“There are 760 members in the party, and 40 percent of them are young people. After all, such a party has no reason to keep trolls," said the deputy.

Nasirov noted that those parties that do not have a social base, and the number of members is very limited, may be interested in maintaining trolls and spending finances.

"In such a situation, a person speaks on behalf of 10 people with fake profiles. The New Azerbaijan Party absolutely does not need this," the YAP functionary said.

The representative of the ruling party believes that in the near future the number of party members will exceed 1 million, because at the seventh congress of the party, Mr. President set a task for the party to prepare new programs and the party has new goals. The head of our party, Mr. President, defined the deepening of the political dialogue as a strategic task.

“In this case, it is not and will not be necessary for our party to maintain a network of trolls,” Nasirov said. In his opinion, this is not done by the YAP, but by the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan and the National Council.

“There are such facts. The reason is that the PFPA has a very limited number of members. In such a situation, naturally, the strategic goal for them and the problem that worries them the most is the issue of a large number of "likes", and to achieve it, there is a need for trolls. These are heroes at the keyboard, and social networks are their homeland,” Nasirov said.

Deputy Chairman of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, Seymur Hazi, told Turan the following: “The New Azerbaijan Party should understand that The Guardian newspaper is not a PFPA body. The Popular Front of Azerbaijan does not have official press organs abroad and in Azerbaijan. Therefore, no matter what the foreign press writes about the New Azerbaijan Party, an attack on the Popular Front Party is an immoral act. If there are facts that can be refuted, let them submit them to this newspaper."

Hazi noted that accusations of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan that it keeps trolls are absurd. “I myself put forward a proposal in this regard, if someone has doubts that they should call these people and explain, let's see if the same person is behind the profile or not,” he said.

According to the PFPA representative, there is such a bitter reality for the government on social networks that everyone sees it.

“Even if they deny it, nothing escapes the public eye. Screenshots, texts, inscriptions. Therefore, I do not think that I am a party to the controversy here. The government wants to divert attention by naming the creators of the trolls the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan. "

Public activist Bakhtiyar Hajiyev also told Turan that there are trolling groups in certain opposition parties, but that the authorities are mainly systematically controlled by various groups.

"Facebook has blocked 8,000 fake profiles and pages. This shows that a large group is regularly working on this," he said. The activist says that the trolls are divided into three groups, and one of them is simple profiles in which they are tasked with defending power with standard texts when publishing any post on opposition pages on any topic.

"This is usually done with the help of texts from pro-government websites and speeches of the president. The second group is usually representatives of the relatively middle class with false profiles, who are trying to change the agenda, writing in accordance with this topic the theses presented by them from the Presidential Administration in various proposals as their own ideas,” Hajiyev said.

According to the activist, there are special-purpose trolls who, under their own names, deal with very important issues, and trying to protect, use theses from the Presidential Administration.

Hajiyev stressed that usually the activities of the trolls are directed against the authorities, and not in their favor. "A lot of people see these profiles as fake and that's annoying."

The activist regarded this as a large waste of money on the part of the authorities, because the content of these groups of trolls is located in different centers - under the Executive Power, state institutions, and they are paid salaries and fees in different forms for the number of comments written. And this is a big financial waste, because they do not influence public opinion in any way."

Lawyer Alasgar Mammadli said that if any normal thought is expressed from a fake account, then no legal liability arises here. If anonymous accounts target someone specifically and humiliate his honor and dignity, or disseminate information prohibited by law, then a criminal case may be initiated under the relevant article.

The expert says that if a criminal case is initiated, the Information Security Department under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies will be able to determine the owner of this account.

“This account can define technical parameters such as from what point, to which IP address it is connected and this person can be found. If a person is outside the country and, in addition to defamation and insults, commits any crime, for example, threatens with attempted murder, then within the framework of a criminal case, they may be required to identify and prosecute."—0—