No Amount of Bots Can Sanitize Azerbaijan’s Atrocious Human Rights Record – Rep. Pallone

WASHINGTON, DC — No amount of bots can sanitize Azerbaijan’s atrocious human rights record and blatant disregard for international law, US Congressman Frank Pallone said in a post on X.

“Instead of spreading misinformation online, Aliyev should focus on ending hostilities against Armenia and respecting the sovereignty of Azerbaijan’s neighbors,” Pallone said.

The statement comes after a new report found that scores of apparently fake social media accounts are boosting Azerbaijan’s hosting of the Cop29 climate summit.

The accounts were mostly set up after July, at which time seven of the top 10 most engaged posts using the hashtags #COP29 and #COP29Azerbaijan were critical of Azerbaijan’s role in the conflict with Armenia, using hashtags such as #stopgreenwashgenocide. By September this had changed, with all of the top 10 most engaged posts coming from the official Cop29 Azerbaijan account.