Bulgaria Governing Party Targets Opposition's 'Fake News'

GERB's new Facebook page, named 'Fake News - Register of Fake News, Lies, Propaganda and Dеception', has been active since Sunday and currently features around 10 posts, labelling statements by MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP - the largest opposition party in parliament - as false.

A spokesperson for GERB confirmed to BIRN that the page was set up by the party, but it is open to ordinary people to share links with alleged disinformation as well.

The spokesperson explained that the shared information would not be subjected to additional fact-checks, but everyone would be able to disprove the claims in the comments section under the posts.

The page was created on the same day as GERB's executive committee held an extraordinary meeting and announced afterwards that it would set up a register of what it called BSP's "fake news".

On Saturday, during the BSP's congress meeting, the Socialist leader Korneliya Ninova accused the GERB-led coalition of establishing "modern-day slavery" in Bulgaria - claims that enraged Boyko Borissov's centre-right party.

GERB is not listed as creator or administrator of the 'fake news' page on Facebook. The only information about the page is a line that says: "We expose liars, crooks and regular fools."

Although the GERB spokesperson explained that the page is aimed at providing a platform for sharing all pieces of alleged disinformation, it currently only contains news links from various media, quoting comments or statements by the members of the opposition with short critical comments.

The BSP has not yet reacted to or commented on GERB's initiative.

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