Turkish fact-checkers shine light on misinformation as crucial elections approach
Teyit has been working for six years to interpret sometimes wild claims made in news media and online.
ISTANBUL — As Turkey heads toward its most closely contested elections in 20 years, a group of independent fact-checkers is preparing to unravel the country’s partisan media environment.
Teyit (meaning corroboration or verification in Turkish) is a nonprofit enterprise established six years ago to verify or refute claims made in traditional news outlets and on social media.
The thousands of claims checked by Teyit’s fact-checkers cover a diverse range of subjects and not just the partisan assertions of political actors. The 10 most recent of the 3,325 analyses carried out concern soccer and poetry as well as politics.
Turkey is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by June 2023. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces the challenge of producing some positive news for voters who are struggling with the country’s worst economic crisis under his two-decade rule.
