Suspicious stories influencing the COP29 debates – DW – 15/11/2024

The annual UN climate summit COP29 is currently taking place in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. On the agenda: the transition away from fossil fuels. A contradiction, some say, because Azerbaijan produces 35.6 billion cubic meters of gas and 30.2 million tons of oil per year.

Central to COP29 will be debates on how oil and gas producing countries can meet the climate targets required under existing international agreements. On the social media platform

DW’s Fact Check team has identified several suspicious X-accounts (here are some examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that have identical characteristics. The majority of these accounts were created in September and October of this year. They have no real content, but share the same messages (usually from members of the government), often at the same time. Moreover, these accounts follow each other and use the same hashtags that dominate the debate about COP29 on social networks.

For example, several of these accounts shared the message from Hikmet Hajiyevhead of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration, praising Azerbaijan as a leader in renewable energy in the region.

The Azerbaijani government, including the chairman of the UN climate summit, Mukhtar Babayev, former vice president of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, is trying to project a green image. The suspected social accounts are apparently intended to help spread messages and stories that convey positive things about Azerbaijan’s energy policy as widely as possible.

Want to influence social media debates? Not for the first time.

The non-governmental organization Global Witnesswhich dedicates its work to topics such as climate change, corruption and human rights issues, has identified 182 suspect accounts in a large-scale study even before kick-off in Baku. These reports showed similar patterns to those found by DW in its recent research.

“We can’t know for sure who set up these accounts. But what we can see is the effect they are having: they changed the conversation on the two most important COP hashtags (COP29 and COP29Azerbaijan),” said Rosie Sharpe of Global Witness in an interview with DW.

“Before most of these accounts were set up, the conversation around those hashtags was mainly critical of the Azerbaijani government’s role in hosting COP29. And after most of those accounts were set up, the most engaged posts on those hashtags changed.”

She and her team took a closer look at the 10 posts with the most comments on these hashtags. In July, seven in ten people were critical of the Azerbaijani government. In September, 10 out of 10 high-reach posts supported the government’s organization of the COP.

“Even accounts that don’t have many followers can influence online discussion if they’re set up in sufficient numbers,” says Sharpe.

Global Witness reported the suspicious accounts to It’s so easy to create new accounts again, so that doesn’t solve the problem,” Sharpe explains.

This is exactly what DW’s research also shows: the campaign continues unabated, even during the COP29 in Baku. After the takedown, several new accounts have even sprung up, spreading the same stories and using the same methods. The new accounts use the two most common COP hashtags to focus social media debate on posts from official Azerbaijani representatives. As a result, search results include images, videos and statements from host country officials intended to show Azerbaijan at its best.

“What is needed is for X to invest more to ensure that their platform cannot be so easily manipulated. What we would like to see X do is investigate who they think is behind these accounts. If they think it is the government of Azerbaijan, they should say so publicly,” Sharpe said.

DW asked X for an explanation as to whether the new accounts had already been identified by the platform as irregular accounts. At the time of publication of this fact check, we have not yet received any feedback.

Independent media under pressure

When the Azerbaijani independent media portal Abzas Media coupled with Global Witness’ investigation into

“We are constantly inundated with such troll accounts,” said Leyla Mustafayeva, acting editor-in-chief of Abzas Media, in an interview with DW. The majority of the editorial staff, a total of six people, have been successively arrested since November last year, shortly after it became clear that the next UN climate conference would take place in Baku.

They have been in custody since then and face a prison sentence of 8 to 12 years. The trials will begin in the coming weeks – probably after COP29, says Leyla Mustafayeva.

Combating disinformation not a topic at COP29

Experts have in the past denounced Azerbaijan’s attempts to influence the public through unfair practices and intimidating critics. Meta already pointed out striking practices in 2022 Hostile Threats Report.

The American company, which owns the social platforms Facebook and Instagram, discovered a complex network that employed a range of tactics, from phishing, social engineering and hacking to coordinated inauthentic behavior, similar to current examples.

At the time, the campaign mainly targeted people from Azerbaijan, including activists, opposition figures, journalists and critics of the government. According to Meta, this campaign was directly led by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The range of disinformation surrounding climate issues is wide: from doubting the scientific consensus to spreading false information. The danger of disinformation on climate topics does not appear to be an important topic for the hosts of COP29. After all, the subject is not on the agenda.

“This is a glaring omission. The failure to confront climate disinformation at such a crucial international platform as COP29 could have lasting consequences,” said Klaus Bruhn Jensen, President of the IPIE Scientific Panel on Climate Science Information Integrity.

“Unchecked disinformation creates fertile ground for climate inaction, preventing societies from building resilience to environmental hazards. Disinformation not only distorts public debate – it hinders the necessary decisions that affect the future of our planet.”

Regarding Azerbaijan’s appearance at this year’s UN Climate Conference, Jensen says: “I have the impression that the host countries, like previous organisers, tend to put forward their own contributions to the green transition. image is certainly appropriate.”

More background information, explanatory pieces, videos, data analyzes and facts about the UN climate conference in Baku can be found here.

Edited by: Rachel Baig