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Zurab Chitaia, a Georgian business owner, appeared before a judge in Tbilisi over a post on his personal Facebook page on Sept. 7. The post is a stream-of-consciousness complaint about domestic politics, mostly aimed at Georgia’s opposition, accusing its leaders of weak planning and ineffectual action. A brief postscript directed “fuck their lot” at the ruling Georgian Dream party, collectively.

Investigators from the interior ministry stepped in, despite the lack of a complaint from any injured party. Police monitors read his posts, wrote up charges, and decided that public order had been violated. The judge quickly found Chitaia guilty and fined him 3,000 Georgian lari, roughly $1,100, and warned Chitaia that a repeat offense could bring 20 days in administrative detention.

Zurab Chitaia, a Georgian business owner, appeared before a judge in Tbilisi over a post on his personal Facebook page on Sept. 7. The post is a stream-of-consciousness complaint about domestic politics, mostly aimed at Georgia’s opposition, accusing its leaders of weak planning and ineffectual action. A brief postscript directed “fuck their lot” at the ruling Georgian Dream party, collectively.

Investigators from the interior ministry stepped in, despite the lack of a complaint from any injured party. Police monitors read his posts, wrote up charges, and decided that public order had been violated. The judge quickly found Chitaia guilty and fined him 3,000 Georgian lari, roughly $1,100, and warned Chitaia that a repeat offense could bring 20 days in administrative detention.

“The entire process is pure bureaucratic theater,” Chitaia said. “Is it simply not allowed to use curse words on Facebook? Did I insult anyone in particular, or what?”

His summons is part of a national campaign that has turned Georgia’s courts into enforcers of speech control. In February, the Georgian parliament adopted amendments to Georgia’s Soviet-era Code of Administrative Offenses and added provisions punishing verbal insults, swearing, taunting, and other offensive acts directed at political officeholders, civil servants, and public employees. A first offense carries a fine of between 1,500 and 4,000 lari or up to 45 days in administrative detention. A repeat offense can bring a fine of up to 6,000 lari or between five and 60 days behind bars.

In Georgia, the state-led campaign against insults and social media speech forms one layer of a larger democratic collapse. Since the disputed October 2024 parliamentary........

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