According to Mamuka Mdinaradze, State Minister for Coordination Among Law Enforcement Agencies, a new division will be established within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Its function will be to monitor hate speech, offensive campaigns, and aggressive communication in the public sphere.

According to Mdinaradze, the division will observe any type of public communication, including statements that the government assesses as containing hate speech, inciting strife, violating personal dignity, or other communications of a similar nature.

He further stated that the division will operate proactively, and its response will not rely solely on citizen complaints. The agency itself will conduct monitoring and legal assessments, forwarding materials to the court when necessary.

Mdinaradze claimed that the goal of the new mechanism is not to restrict freedom of expression. According to him, “no one will be subjected to an administrative penalty for criticism.” However, in cases where communication takes on an offensive or strife-inciting character, the court may even impose administrative imprisonment.

The initiative to create this new division is particularly noteworthy against the backdrop of recent trends in Georgia, where there have been numerous instances of individuals facing administrative liability for public expression, including social media posts. In response to Mdinaradze’s announcement, Tamar Oniani, Chairperson of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, stated that the proposed mechanism “appears to be a form of censorship and has nothing to do with the balance of interests in a democratic society.”