[2a0c40]

„ The bill, which would require organisations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, has sparked a rolling political crisis in the South Caucasus country.“

Why is that so bad?

[kkfx]

https://ge.usembassy.gov/statement-from-ambassador-dunnigan/ or https://web.archive.org/web/20240502143927/https://ge.usemba... should explain anything to you.

Or try the classic Lord Arthur Ponsonby (1871-1946):

1. We don't want war, we are only defending ourselves;

2. The other guy is solely responsible for this war;

3. Our adversary's leader is evil and looks evil;

4. We are defending a noble purpose, not special interest;

5. The enemy is purposefully causing atrocities; we only commit mistakes;

6. The enemy is using unlawful weapons;

7. We have very little losses, the enemy is losing big;

8. Intellectuals and artists support our cause;

9. Our cause is sacred;

10. Those who doubt our propaganda are traitors.

If you recover the old NATO Summit in Bucarest/2008 you'll get also the details.

[tazjin]

It's originally an American law (FARA) which they essentially translated into Georgian. But in America this is used against Russia, China etc., whereas in Georgia they'd also use it against American organisations. That's obviously not in the spirit of the original law!

[infamia]

FARA deals with organizations diectly lobbying the government. The bill in Georgia says any organization that gets more than 20% of it's money internationally must register as a foreign agent.

How are these two concepts remotely similar? Why should a travel agency or a freight shipping company register as a "foreign agent" (a positively Orwellian term)?

[tazjin]

A travel agency or a shipping company are commercial organisations. You do know what the law you're arguing about says, right?

[infamia]

The new law (among other things) applies to commercial entities with a website in the Georgian language and their own domain name.

> and legal entities that own or use, jointly or with others, an internet domain and/or internet hosting intended for the dissemination of information through the internet in the Georgian language, must register in public registry as "agents of foreign influence" and be subjected to the monitoring of the Ministry of Justice, if they receive more than 20% of their annual income from "a foreign power".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023%E2%80%932024_Georgian_pro...

[tazjin]

Peculiar how that Wikipedia article omits a crucial word in its condensed summary. I'm sure this is an honest error, since nobody would ever use Wikipedia to try to push their own agenda.

Anyways, lets look at the law text. This is from paragraph D of article 2 of the law:

> ისეთი იურიდიული პირი, რომელიც ერთპიროვნულად ან სხვასთან ერთად ფლობს ან/და იყენებს მასობრივი ინფორმაციის საქართველოს სახელმწიფო ენაზე გამავრცელებელი ინტერნეტსაშუალებისთვის განკუთვნილ ინტერნეტდომენს ან/და ინტერნეტჰოსტინგს და ...

Crucially, as in paragraph C which refers to legacy media, this explicitly says მასობრივი ინფორმაციის which is mass information. This is referring to things like news websites, not any company website.

Oh, and happy Victory Day!

[selivanovp]

Because it makes harder for USA NGO's to manipulate countries like Georgia. And those protests is a clear example of the power those NGO's have.

[throwaway11460]

Yeah sure, people there have no agency. They surely would welcome their lord and savior Putin if only these pesky NGOs didn't have so much power.