Implemented by the Association of Journalists and financed by the European Union (EU) the Democracy of Media/Media for Democracy Programme (M4D) continue to hold its weekly journalists’ meeting in the Press House. “Teyit.org” and “Oy ve Ötesi” talked about the importance of correcting false information propagated via social media during elections and the role they have in ensuring election processes run as fairly as possible.
M4D Assistant Director Seva Ülman made the opening speech and gave information about the various supports the programme provides to unemployed journalists: “Our programme provides various opportunities and incentives for young journalists to help them continue practising their professions, especially those who have left their previous positions. For those who are interested, please visit our website for more information.”
Teyit.org has been fact checking misconceptions portrayed in the media, urban legends and viral content circulating social media since 2016. Their team of 11 have been fact-checking to show first-hand internet users and NGOs what information is correct and what is not. Editor of Teyit.org Ali Osman Arabacı remarked that the website was established to provide the public with correct information especially during crises, and emphasized that following the coup attempt and the terror attacks especially in Ankara and around Turkey necessitated the establishment of Teyit.org to provide the people with accurate information. Arabacı said “Moments of crisis necessitate the spreading of correct information; this has been our founding principle since 2016. Coups, conflict, bombs have an important place in founding our site as there is so much false information about them.”
How does Teyit.org fact-check information and news? Arabacı explained that Teyit.org evaluates news on the internet, social media and mainstream media according to specific publication policies and fact-check according to importance, urgency and prevalence. The content is approached with whether or not correct information is accessible said Arabacı “First of all we check if the information can be confirmed in any way. We can only confirm information data that is based on objective, quantitative data but not subjective information. We also cannot fact-check foresight. We evaluate news according to importance, urgency and prevalence. For example, there’s a reality of Syrian refugees in Turkey, news about them on social media is quite problematic. We are living in a deeply polarized country, it’s important to fact-check news like this in order to assess how much they reflect truth. News about public health are among our priorities, as well. Regarding urgency, news that might affect the freedom, fundamental rights and livelihood of individuals are quite important for us. Because sharing news about these individuals can result in their deaths or many other bad things.”
Teyit.org member of International Fact-Checking Network
Arabacı mentioned that there are 188 fact-checking platforms similar to Teyit.org:
“There are many fact-checking platforms around the world ranging from Venezuela to Egypt. Everyone can do fact-checking but Teyit.org has some principles. We are the Turkey representative of the International Fact-Checking Network. There are certain criteria you need to fulfil to be a part of this network and these principles are updated every year. Objectivity is one of these criteria. We give importance that our staff are not associated with any political party, we let the network know this through a document we get from the e-government gateway. Another criterion is documenting financial transparency. In the beginning we would receive funds from various embassies; we have made a deal with Facebook where we fact-check content on the social media platform that we deem to be problematic. Facebook then publishes the content with the caption “This content has been falsified by Teyit.org, would you still like to share it?”. Another criterion is making sure our methodology is accessible. As part of our “correction policy” we need to directly specify any changes made in the content. Teyit.org functions according to these principles.”
Since its beginning Teyit.org has followed four elections remarked Arabacı and added “Elections are considered as crises for us, we actively follow them. We normally receive 25-30 reports but during elections we receive hundreds.”
Beware of false information on the internet!
Arabacı gave tips on how to identify if the social media account of artists, leaders and other influential figures’ accounts are fake or not:
“We recommend users to be cautious of the validity of information propagated in terms of verified accounts. Because troll accounts, photoshopped visuals and fake accounts are quite widespread. Many people who don’t own social media accounts have faced problems due to stolen identity. Another problem is context. You can photoshop pictures without leaving any trace, this is especially true during election times because banners tend to have a white background which make it easy to alter. Another thing to watch-out for is asymmetrical propaganda; rival groups imitate each other to spread false information. It’s very easy to fall for this trap as a social media user. In these instances, it’s important to verify the validity of the information by visiting the source of the content. “Parody Accounts” or troll accounts are numerous, too. We resort to different methods to expose them, for example how a crowd is measured in political meetings, whether or not photos used by political leaders actually reflect the truth or not. We use videos of the event, satellite imagery and other visuals and use MedChecking Code to measure the territory. The system tells us how many people there are per square meter. That’s how we validate.”
Fake news circulates more
Fake news, especially on the internet, receives significant attention remarked Arabacı and added “We need to asses interaction rates, does fake news circulate more or do articles we have confirmed circulate more? In our last report we compared the interaction rates of fake news and articles we published between 15 December- 15 April. During the election period we published 33 articles that we confirmed; you can look at the details on our website. Fake news gets around 100 thousand clicks whereas confirmed articles do not get more than 10 thousand clicks. People continue to be exposed to fake news more than real news. I can tell you that fake news circulation was around 13 thousand in December and it increased to 296 thousand in April. Of the news articles we have corrected 77.19% are still in circulation, 19% has been removed and around 3.5% of the remaining articles have been corrected. We publish fact-checked news but it doesn’t receive the attention of fake news, which at the same time continues to be spread via social media.”
Dr. Başak Yavçan of “Oy ve Ötesi Bağımsız Platformu” took the floor and talked about the function of the organization and how they became an association on 24 April 2014 with the aim of observing elections in Turkey. Yavçan, who was first assigned to observe the elections as part of the “Oy ve Ötesi Bağımsız Platform” on 24 June Presidential and General Elections, coordinates the Central Anatolian region and supports the platform in its foreign affairs. Functioning as the Ankara branch for “Oy ve Ötesi” Yavşan added that the platform was established during the Gezi Park Protests.
180 thousand volunteers
“We are an association that aim to increase democratic participation by raising awareness of the importance by focusing on safeguarding the ballot box. Our numbers change in every election, last time we reached 180 thousand volunteers. We try to organize as many people as possible before each election, and we try to do it as independently and objectively as possible. We take on this duty in view of the counsel of the Supreme Electoral Council. We participate in the elections by requesting observer cards from as many parties as possible and provide observers with objective training. We underline the importance of being “an observer not a warrior”. The electoral process is very important for us, from opening the sacks containing the ballot papers to counting the votes, our observers are there for every step. The reason for this is because polls show us that there is a lot of mistrust towards elections. In the last elections we were able to organize in 58 cities and 279 districts.” said Yavçan.
What are official report confirmations?
Yavçan talked about the applications they have developed to ensure elections are held legally and results are transmitted properly. Yavçan gave the following information about the system:
“Each election gives us the opportunity to try something new. As of the 31 March Local Elections we transitioned to an online platform to confirm reports and called it “Turkey Report Confirmation” (T3). The reason for this was to quantitively record official reports. We compare our data with the Supreme Electoral Council and in the case of any discrepancies we notify our lawyers who contact the Supreme Electoral Council. If the council finds any unlawful activity it punishes the balloting committee. Our goal is of course not to punish anyone, Oy ve Ötesi was established to prevent anything unlawful. We volunteer during elections to provide correct information. We publish a report after each election, in this report we document discrepancies, we have analyses and data collected from the polls sent to our observers. Anybody who downloads the T3 app can upload pictures of reports to our system. In addition, our call centre actively works during every election to document any complaints, problems, irregularities and violations.”
Election results will be given live
Yavçan also stated that the election results of the 23 June Istanbul Mayoral Election will be given live for the first time. She added “In this election there will be 10 thousand people observing ballot boxes. For the first time, we are going to publish the election results from confirmed ballot boxes. As an organization we aren’t focused on providing results, but if we are able to get enough reports and can confirm with T3 in time, then we can make an estimation. If none of these happen, and we don’t get enough reports and cannot confirm them, then we won’t be able to make any kind of estimation.”
