Hundreds of profiles created ad hoc on X aimed at promoting the controversial choice of Azerbaijan, a super producer of oil and gas, of host COP29the United Nations climate change conference next month.
The accounts were created primarily after July, when seven of the 10 most active posts using the hashtags #COP29 and #COP29Azerbaijan were especially critical of Azerbaijan’s role in the conflict with Armenia, even using hashtags such as #stopgreenwashgenocide.
Then, in September, the situation was practically reversed and the most active posts came from the official Cop29 Azerbaijan account. Not difficult, considering that the Government of Azerbaijan also has some experience in using coordinated inauthentic accounts on Facebook to target the country’s journalists and democracy activists, as well as using bots and trolls on ‘Armenia.
Now, according to Global Witness which conducted the new analyses, inflate artificially the scale of government posts is obviously drowning out independent criticism of the country’s record on the climate crisis and crackdown on human rights.
What is happening
The Government of Azerbaijan will oversee the UN climate summit, which will begin on November 11, where states will once again seek to implement the urgent cuts in fossil fuels that are now imperative to avoid the most destructive impacts of climate breakdown.
But the host country itself has significant reserves of fossil fuels and intends to increase gas production by 50% over the next decade. Therefore, there is no doubt that we have no concrete interests.
The last climate summit, COP28, was also held in an oil-producing state, the United Arab Emirates, and in the run-up to that conference a army of fake social media accounts promoted and defended the state. Back then, countries failed to agree to “phase out” fossil fuels at COP28, as many wanted, instead choosing the weaker ambition of “abandon fossil fuels“.
More than 70 suspicious accounts supporting the Government of Azerbaijan
The analysis of Global Witness shows the distinctive features of the attempt to manipulate the conversation artificially. So far, 71 accounts have been found using hashtags that repeatedly amplify official messages from the Government of Azerbaijan. The accounts appear to be inauthentic as they are suspiciously similar to each other:
From Global Witness they wrote to
We have also written to the Government of Azerbaijan and the organizers of COP29 to give them the opportunity to comment on our findings. They did not respond, Global Witness concludes.
