Disinformation and toxification of news

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This article has been published as part of the "Resilience in Journalism" article series which sets out to offer critical reviews exemplifying hate speech and disinformation in the media as part of the Resilience Project, of which the IPS Communication Foundation / bianet from Turkey is one of the partners.

Once upon a time, different kinds of events were happening in a country with connections to three continents, foreign powers were responsible for anything that happened to the country, news against the government were absolutely lies, access to them should be blocked urgently...

According to the 2018 Digital News report by Reuters and Oxford, 49 percent of the news reports circulating in Turkey were fake.

The "biased" disinformation accounts, which are known in the public as "Aktrolls," in reference to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been a talking point for five-ten years.

There are dissident or alternative media outlets, opposition politicians and alternative media workers who say to have been attacked by these accounts.

Alternative media is a notion that needs to be used in countries like Turkey, where television and newspaper outlets that reach masses are under the control of the government.

Mission: Attacking the opposition

A report prepared as part of Oxford University Internet Institute's Computational Propaganda Research Project says that there is a 500-people cyber troop in Turkey, which is among the countries with disinformation activity, and these troops are used to "attack the opposition, suppress social media and support the government."

According to the same study, Turkey is the country whose people fear expressing political opinions on the internet the most with 65 percent.

The reason is the possibility of "having problems with the authorities". Turkey is followed by Vietnam with 63 percent, Malaysia with 57 percent and Brazil with 56 percent. Norway, the USA, Sweden and Denmark feel most comfortable in this regard.

The effects of fake and misleading news and hate speech that have increased due to online news platforms and social media channels have been felt frequently in Turkey in recent years.

In such a toxic environment, citizens who are prompted towards various goals for various purposes unwittingly participate in disinformation with their political and national feelings.

According to data shared by teyit.org, a fact-checking platform, the tweets of those who spread disinformation about vaccines cannot be prevented from getting interaction.

"This increase can be easily seen when we compare the data in the same periods (January - September) of 2020 and 2021. The total number of retweets and likes of accounts spreading disinformation seems to have increased significantly.

"When we analyze the interactions according to the number of tweets posted in 2020, it seems that approximately 40 retweets and 115 likes were received per tweet.

"By 2021, these stats had risen to an alarming 120 retweets and 390 likes per tweet as the visibility of the accounts increased.

"It is possible to infer that fact checking organizations and public health institutions cannot prevent the popularization of these actors."

"Feminists booed azan"

The Feminist Night March has been held in İstanbul on March 8 every year since 2003. The march takes place on İstiklal Avenue.

During the march in 2019, the police blocked many roads leading to İstiklal Avenue and took intense security measures. The women who wanted to carry out the march started to gather in front of the İstanbul French Cultural Center towards 19.00.

Meanwhile, thousands of women gathered in front of the Cultural Center and in the nearby streets.

While carrying out their protests with slogans and whistles since the beginning of the demonstration, the participants of the march often chanted "open, open, open" and "Our right to march can't be prevented," asking the police to remove barricades. At around 20.40, the police started to intervene in the groups with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The pro-government Yeni Şafak newspaper alleged that the women booed the call to prayer.

The website of the newspaper shared a video with the statement, "The scums who attempted to protest while azan was being recited in Taksim last night."

Many websites published reports on this video that the call to prayer was protested during the demonstrations.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a speech on March 10, 2019, in Adana that "A group coming together in Taksim under the leadership of CHP and HDP, supposedly for Women's Day, insulted the azan with whistles and slogans."

After the disinformation spread, there were attacks on women in Taksim. Statements by women's groups that the call to prayer was recited at the same time as the police intervention and slogans, but there was never an insult to call to prayer were not covered by the media that spread disinformation.

The statement signed by the 17th Feminist Night March said the following:

"Police didn't care about the call to prayer while blocking the roads, preventing women from coming together, spraying gas or searching.

"Those who prevented us from marching on the route we have been marching for 16 years and kept us near the mosque now say that you are against azan. No one should distort it, our rebellion is against police barricades and those who want to prevent the women's March and March 8."

Perception with headlines and photographs

In her article about disinformation titled, "The Problem of Disinformation in the Media and the Power of Manipulation: The Role of Election News in Political Communication in Terms of Ideology and Discourse, Assoc. Prof. Fatma Çakmak discusses the 2019 elections in terms of newspapers.

Exemplifying a news article in Star newspaper's issue dated 27.02.2019, with the red subheading, "Here is the background of the Felicity-HDP alliance" and the headline "Not a withdrawal but embracing each other," Dr. Çakmak states the following:

"When the thematic structure is examined from a macro viewpoint, a perception has been created that the Felicity Party was in a secret deal with the HDP.

"It is seen that the statements in the nut graph that 'It has been revealed that the Felicity Party's partnership with the HDP, the extension of the terrorist organization, was established at the meeting of the Democratic Islam Congress, which was set up upon an instruction by PKK ringleader Abdullah Öcalan, on February 22 in Şanlıurfa' includes an allegation against the Felicity Party.

"When micro-syntactic analysis is carried out; it is seen that sentence structures are passive, and no need was felt for citing references in terms of lexical cohesion.

"In terms of rhetoric, it is seen that a photograph, including a Felicity Party member, is shared and presented as evidence.

"When looked at the schematic structure, it is seen that the main event was presented, as contextual information, by stating that HDP withdrew its candidates in Şanlıurfa in favor of the SP three days after the panel where HDP deputy Kaya and the SP's Bilgiç made presentations.

"This situation is described as a 'dirty plot' by the newspaper. The newspaper clearly demonstrated its stance against the HDP and openly criticized the SP, claiming that it was together with them."

"PKK bunker in the provincial building"

In the content titled "'PKK' bunker in HDP Provincial Building' in the program "Memleket Meselesi," which was broadcast on A Haber on March 8, 2021, at 21.00, after the host's statements that "We knew that there were anonymous witness statements regarding a PKK bunker in the HDP's İstanbul provincial building," an anonymous witness's statements in line with this were included.

The Peoples' Democratic Party filed a complaint with the RTÜK, stating that the program lacked information and documentation. But no results were achieved.

The MP who went to Gare

Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu had stated that there was an HDP deputy who had gone to Gare in Northern Iraq.

Saying that Süleyman Soylu showing photographs whose place and time was known was "an effort to create a perception," HDP Co-Chair Pervin Buldan said, "The photographs you showed on a TV channel two days ago are the photographs of us bringing the letters of Öcalan, where he would have called on the PKK to lay down arms. Your party chair was waiting with excitement and hope for what that letter would have brought to this country."

However, many mainstream media organizations, such as A Haber and TRT, did not cover Buldan's statements. The incident remained in the memories of many people with Soylu's claim.

ŞGBTI+s and regular AKİT disinformation

LGBTI+ individuals and organizations that defend LGBTI+ individuals' rights are also frequently caught by disinformation.

In a 2018 report titled, "They were punched by Turkey's iron fist, now they have hormonal disorders," the Yeni Akit newspaper used photographs of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Abdullah Öcalan and Fetullah Gülen and used the phrase "homosexual perversion" for these three and their supporters.

These were also stated in the report:

"The upright stance of Turkey, which is tried to be besieged from all sides, and the fact that it foiled all plots by hitting traitors like an iron fist, disrupted the hormones of savage Kemalists, as well as of FETÖ and PKK terrorists. Among these groups who are the enemies of Turkey and started a war against national and spiritual values, the perverted 'homosexual' relationships scandal has been revealed."

Yeni Akit newspaper reported President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş's Friday sermon targeting homosexuals in April 2020.

In the report titled "Criminal complaint against President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş, who said Islam curses homosexuality," the newspaper repeated the discriminatory and homophobic hate speech of the President of Religious Affairs, who had led a symbolic Friday prayer in Ankara's Hacı Bayram Mosque.

It accused the Human Rights Association (İHD) of "advocacy of perverts" and continued homophobic hate speech with the phrase "perverted LGBTers."

The discourse continued with the article by Harun Sekmen titled "Curse to the children of Lut, which included a reference to a verse of the Quran.

"Carriers of the deadly microbe"

Reviewing disinformation through coronavirus reports, communications academic Yasemin İnceoğlu said in an article for bianet titled "Covid-19 crisis and the media" that "Misinformation, confusing data and fake news undoubtedly pose a clear and present danger to public safety and health."

"When we add our prejudices and lack of empathy to the unstable and sensational health reporting, vulnerable people are portrayed as potential 'deadly germ carriers,' which triggers not only racism and hatred but also a culture of fear.

"Global media companies should work together closely with prominent health institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent the widespread dissemination of false and distorted information that can cause fear, panic and anger, and to urgently contain and mitigate the crisis .

"Interactive platforms should continue to include news images and videos about the virus outbreak and cases that are ignored by the mainstream media, with due regard to patient rights.

"We, as good media and digital literates, should not believe every news that we see without questioning it, without accessing primary sources other than official sources, and without cross-reading."

Since the beginning of the pandemic until November 27, 2020, only the number of the patients who had Covid-19 symptoms and were being treated, instead of the daily number of cases, was announced in Turkey.

In short, people who were said to be asymptomatic were not included in the daily table.

The Ministry of Health has started to announce the number of cases in the daily Covid-19 table as of November 27. For a long time, the number of patients was known as the number of cases in the public.

Water outage with a washing machine

A report by A Haber this year where it claimed that there was a water outage in İstanbul became a talking point on social media.

Inthe report, it was claimed that there was a water problem in İstanbul like in the '90s.

The reason for drawing attention to the water outage in İstanbul was the fact that someone from the opposition (CHP's Ekrem İmamoğlu) won the election for the İstanbul Mayor after a long time.

The washing machine that was seen working behind the reporter was one of the latest examples of A Haber's reports, which are said to be "fiction" by many experts.

No limits

The 14-year-old Berkin Elvan was hit in the head with a gas canister in Okmeydanı during the 2013 Gezi REsistance. He had been in intensive care for 269 days. He was 16 kilograms at the age of 15 and lost his life on March 11, 2014.

Erdoğan made disinformation statements targeting Berkin and his mother. In the same speech, Erdoğan accused opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu of not being honest:

"There was a funeral in İstanbul recently. Unfortunately, a child who was embraced by terrorist organizations, covered his face and was given a slingshot, with iron balls in his pocket, unfortunately encounters tear gas. How can the police tell the age of the person whose face is covered and who shoots iron balls with a slingshot? However, Kılıçdaroğlu lies as always. He says he was a 'child who went to buy bread.' Be honest. What does it have to do with buying bread? Interestingly, the mother of the child says, 'the prime minister is the killer of my child.' I know about filial love, but I didn't quite get why you threw iron carnations and iron balls into your child's grave. Why were they throwing iron balls into his grave? What message are you giving?" At the same rally, Erdoğan made the crowd boo Berkin Elvan's mother, Gülsüm Elvan.

The relationship between disinformation and hate speech can be seen very well here.

Legal arrangements for disinformation

In recent weeks, the legal arrangements about the social media law, which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said would come to the agenda with the opening of the parliament, are about to be completed.

With the arrangements, a punishment will be defined in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) for those who "disseminate fake news and insult" on social media.

With the arrangements, it is also planned that a mechanism to control those who produce and disseminate fake news. Accordingly, the 'Presidency of Social Media,' which will perform the duty to supervise social media, may be established within the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) and the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK).

AKP officials say that there is already the Internet Department within the BTK and a "social media" unit may be established within the department.

According to many opposition politicians and journalists, the government mostly manages the information and sometimes disinformation and wants to silence the information of the opposition under the guise of disinformation.

Pointing out the difficulty of defining disinformation, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Responsible for Information and Informatics Technologies Onursal Adıgüzel says the government continues the practice of "declaring those who are not with them terrorists."

"Penal judges of peace have a biased stance to regard criticism against the government as 'insult' and insults against the opposition as 'criticism.' They even act like an executive of a party sometimes."

When the subject is in power

In a speech he gave in June, Erdoğan said, "Look, my dear brothers and sisters, there are vaccines in different places in the world. Do you know the most developed countries in Europe charge fees for vaccines? We don't do such a thing."

Erdoğan also said that European leaders had advised him to charge the citizens for vaccines.

However, contrary to Erdoğan's statement, Covid-19 programs are free in the United Kingdom and in many other countries.

As we have seen in these examples, sometimes government representatives can directly be the subjects of disinformation.

And, the alternative media, which has been frequently targeted by the government recently, can write the truth that "No, vaccines are free in other countries as well."

It is ot only about ethics

Opposition figures think that the arrangement about disinformation will be used to remove the -increasingly fewer- reports against the government and to change the public perception in their favor.

In the new world, where notions are used so easily by opposing parties, it becomes even more important to remember disinformation, real information, and the fundamental purpose of journalism.

In the age of social media, targeting and paving the way for hate crimes, disinformation threatens not only journalism but also the most fundamental right of people, the right to life.

When we look at the examples on different subjects at different times and in different cases, we see that disinformation leaves serious social wounds and that some social wounds can only be healed by an accurate information flow.

About the Resilience project Funded by the European Union The regional program 'RESILIENCE: Civil society action to reaffirm media freedom and counter disinformation and hateful propaganda in Western Balkans and Turkey' is implemented with the financial support of the European Union by partner organizations SEENPM, Albanian Media Institute, Mediacentar Sarajevo, Kosovo 2.0, Montenegrin Media Institute, Macedonian Institute for Media, Novi Sad School of Journalism, Peace Institute and bianet. This article was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of bianet and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. You can have detailed information about the project here. Click here for the first report. Click here for the second report. Click here for the factsheet on Turkey

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The hatred of refugees / Murat Bay

The state's disinformation kills in Turkey / Gözde Çağrı Özköse

Disinformation and toxification of news / Pınar Tarcan 

(PT/NÖ/VK)