Turkish government's fact-checking app brings concern, ridicule
Turkey’s information tsar Fahrettin Altun’s announcement of a “next-generation application” to combat “false facts” raised fears of further control over social media.
When the Turkish government announced May 20 that it would launch a next generation fact-checking platform to counter misinformation on social media, the first reaction from the government’s critics was ridicule.
“A great app — get a reply from the government so that you know for a fact that the opposite is true,” tweeted one user. Can Okar, a widely followed Turkish user based in Switzerland, tweeted an imaginary scenario: "An inquiry such as 'Let me check the president’s statement that Turkey has $95 billion reserves [while] all the economists say they’re gone' would yield the reply, '[The app] says those economists are terrorists and so are you for even asking.'”
Turkey’s Communications Directorate’s announcement of the new application was also followed with several sardonic references to George Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth” or Nazi propoganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
But for members of the media, the state stepping in to fact-check is no laughing matter, particularly in light of the moves of the government to control online platforms and tighten the grip on dissident media whenever they publish views, information or figures by nongovernmental sources.
