Artsakh official warns of Azerbaijani fake news in Armenian groups on Facebook

Artsakh president’s security advisor Tigran Abrahamyan warns of misleading fake news spread by Azerbaijanis on Facebook though hacked accounts of Armenians.

“Fake news has been circulating in Armenian groups through hacked accounts for several months already,” Abrahamyan said in a Facebook post. “Various hacked users managed by Azerbaijanis are making posts on the political situation in Armenia and Artsakh, its alleged deterioration, disruption of public relations and fabricated divide between Armenian and Artsakh peoples aimed at the emergence or deepening of internal hostility.”

He stated fake news posts in several groups mainly call on users to take to the streets to protest against Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The Artsakh official states most of the group admins have failed to respond to his warnings of the spread of fake news by Azerbaijanis.

“Commenting on the fake news posts is also not effective,” Abrahamyan said, posting the screenshot of a reply to his message by an Azerbaijani who hacked the account of an Armenian Facebook user named Vardush Ghukasyan, where he warned about creating ‘chaos’ among Armenians.

“I urge information security agencies to tackle such security issues, to prevent such incidents at an early stage, as well as to conduct public awareness campaigns on information security principles and their risks,” he wrote.