Owner Temur Khaindrava Website www.forum.ge | Created by Temur Khaindrava | |
Slogan(s) The strength of Georgian forum | ||
Tbilisis Forumi (Georgian: თბილისის ფორუმი, "Tbilisi's forum") is the largest and one of the oldest Georgian general-purpose internet forums. It was launched in 2001 by Temur Khaindrava (known by his forum nickname as Tim). In 2004, the administration changed the engine from vBulletin into IPB; At that time the website was visited about 50-100 users each day. In 2007 Tbilisis Forumi became the most popular internet-forum in Georgia, having nearly thousand registered users logged in everyday. As of 8 August 2014, the website claims to have 121,708 users and 38,045,034 posts. There are some users of social prominence. Some members were involved in social activities.
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Incidents
In April 2016, a court in Tbilisi placed the Georgian internet user Sulkhan Tsuladze in pre-trial detention for a month after he predicted a fictional attack on the United States Ambassador to Georgia on Tbilisis Forumi, which was claimed by the police to have been a threat of an attack on a person enjoying international protection. Human rights organizations criticized the detention as unjustified, arguing that the post was intended as a joke. He was released on bail in May 2016.
Censorship
The forum website was briefly shutdown during the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War. In the following weeks, internet users alleged restrictions on the discussion of political issues on the forum after its administration posted a statement urging the users "to refrain from posts... that would be inappropriate for the state's interests".
The website, owing to its political sub-forum, is blacklisted and banned by the Russian government.