Fact check: Suspicious accounts influencing COP29 debates

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

Central to COP29 are debates about how oil and gas-producing nations can hit the climate targets required under existing international agreements. On the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, many accounts currently give the impression that Azerbaijan is a pioneer in the field of green energy. 

 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 genuine content, but share the same posts (mostly from members of the government), often at the same time. In addition, 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 post by Hikmet Hajiyev, head of the foreign affairs department of the presidential administration, in which he praises 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 suspicious social accounts are apparently intended to help spread messages and narratives that convey positive things about Azerbaijan's energy policy as widely as possible.

Influencing social media debates? Not for the first time

The nongovernmental organization Global Witness, which dedicates its work to topics such as climate change, corruption and human rights issues, identified 182 suspicious accounts in a large-scale study even before the kickoff in Baku. These accounts showed similar patterns to those DW found in its recent research.

"We can't know for sure who set up those accounts. But what we can see is the effect that they have — they changed the conversation on the main two COP hashtags (COP29 and COP29Azerbaijan)," said Rosie Sharpe from Global Witness in an interview with DW. 

"Before most of these accounts were set up, the conversation on those hashtags was mostly critical of the Azerbaijan government's role in hosting COP29. And then after most of those accounts were set up, the most engaged with posts on those hashtags changed."

Sharpe and her team took a closer look at the 10 posts with the most reactions to these hashtags. In July, seven out of 10 were critical of the Azerbaijani government. In September, 10 out of 10 high-reach posts supported the government's hosting of the COP.

"Even accounts that don't have many followers can influence the online discussion if they are set up in sufficient numbers," said Sharpe.

Global Witness reported the suspicious accounts to X. As a result, most of them were deleted. "Asking X to investigate several accounts and then deleting them is not enough, because the accounts just pop up again like zombies, they reinvent themselves and it's so easy to create new accounts again, so that doesn't solve the problem," explained Sharpe.

This is exactly what DW's research has also shown: The campaign continues unabated, even during the COP29 in Baku. In fact, several new accounts have emerged since the deletion, spreading the same narratives and using the same methods. The new accounts use the two most common COP hashtags to direct the debate on social media to posts by official Azerbaijani representatives. As a result, search results contain images, videos and statements from officials of the host country that are intended to show Azerbaijan at its best. 

"What's 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's the Azerbaijan government, they should state that publicly," said Sharpe.

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

Independent media under pressure 

When the Azerbaijani independent media portal Abzas Media linked Global Witness' research on X, it faced a hail of user comments defending Azerbaijan's government and promoting the country as being free and democratic.

"We are constantly flooded with such troll accounts," said Leyla Mustafayeva, acting editor-in-chief of Abzas Media, in an interview with DW. The majority of the editorial team, six people in total, have been successively arrested since November 2023, shortly after it became clear that the next UN climate conference would take place in Baku.

Since then, they have been in custody and face eight to 12 years in prison. The trials will begin in the next few weeks — presumably after COP29, said Mustafayeva. 

Combating disinformation not an issue at COP29

Experts have already denounced Azerbaijan's attempts to influence the public with unfair practices and intimidate critics in the past. Online giant Meta pointed out conspicuous practices as early as 2022 in its Adversarial Threat Report.

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

The campaign at the time primarily targeted people from Azerbaijan, including activists, opposition figures, journalists and government critics. According to Meta, this campaign was led directly by the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry.

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

"This is a striking omission. The failure to confront climate disinformation at such a critical international platform like COP29 could have lasting consequences, " said Klaus Bruhn Jensen, a climate science expert at the  International Panel on the Information Environment.

"Unchecked disinformation creates a fertile ground for climate inaction, preventing societies from building resilience against environmental hazards. Disinformation doesn't just distort public debate — it obstructs the necessary decisions that affect the future of our planet," he added.

"I have the impression that the hosts, like previous organizers, tend to play up their own contribution to the green transition. A healthy dose of skepticism towards Azerbaijan's self-portrayal is definitely appropriate," he said.

You can find more background information, explanatory pieces, videos, data analyses and facts about the UN COP29 Climate Change Conference in Baku here.

Edited by: Rachel Baig