May 2, 2019
Two Armenian Facebook pages — AntiFake.am and Adekvad (Ադեկվադ) — masqueraded as impartial fact-checking organizations to spread biased narratives aimed at discrediting the government of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Following on Part 1, this piece examines the nature and scope of coordination between the two pages. The AntiFake.am and Adekvad pages plainly coordinated in their effort to spread anti-Pashinyan narratives and inauthentic content. On April 15, the Adekvad Facebook page livestreamed leading representatives of both groups, including Narek Samsonyan, chairman of the NGO behind the AntiFake.am initiative, spray painting the hashtag #SutNikol on public streets in Armenia’s capital of Yerevan. Samsonyan, along with Artur Danielyan of Adekvad and Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan of BlogNews.am, were detained by police for defacing public property and were released later that day.