Fighting lies and disinformation amid the rubble

More than 35,000 people lost their lives, and more than 105,000 were wounded in the earthquake disaster that hit Türkiye on Feb. 6. The earthquakes caused destruction in 10 provinces, but houses were damaged in 13 provinces. This is a natural disaster that displaced the earth’s crust up to 7.3 meters.

Thousands of people died under rubble in this disaster, and thousands of others strived to save lives in search and rescue operations. People not only struggled in the region against the challenges caused by the earthquake or the freezing weather conditions, but also the disinformation circulating on social media and on the streets.

I have been working since day one of the disaster with the seasoned editors and journalists of the Anadolu Agency Confirmation Line. This department scans and confirms the accuracy of the fake, incorrect information, and content-bearing elements of disinformation on social media. Seeing the magnitude and results of the disinformation identified there, I can say that this is perhaps the first time in recent history that information pollution and disinformation affected so immensely and directly the lives of our people.

For example, some earthquake victims, who were thought to be looters due to misinformation, were assaulted. Posts shared by ill-intentioned people, claiming, “there are people under the rubble at such and such address,” directed search and rescue teams to the wrong locations.

It was not reflected much to the public, however, one hearsay circulating in WhatsApp groups in Adıyaman caused panic in the city. One of my official sources from the region reported that the claim, “disinfection operations will be conducted in Adıyaman, and everyone will be poisoned,” caused some people to panic, leading them to try and flee the city with their families.

Surely, the most striking example showing how disinformation affects the society, especially during times of disaster, was the rumor that the “dam in Hatay collapsed.” This claim, which was made on the street, quickly spread on social media, leading thousands to stampede in panic. One search and rescue volunteer said, “There was a live person in one building we were working on. They said, ‘the dam exploded.’ We didn’t know what to do.” This is one real example of fighting against lies while under rubble.

None of the examples above were circulated on the street or on social media by mistake. This is intentional evil. Some of the disinformation is spread for ideological reasons, some political, and some organizational. Some of them are based on psychological reasons. The number of those disregarding human life to draw attention, and create more interaction is quite substantial.

We must remember the existence of terrorist organizations and their sympathizers, who want to take advantage of every opportunity for propaganda and target the state’s unity, and the community’s solidarity. We are aware that terrorist organizations, primarily the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), created groups on WhatsApp and Telegram applications to circulate disinformation via anonymous accounts in efforts to further muddy the waters.

Unfortunately, there is no consequence for lying or producing disinformation, if there are no traceable fingerprints left behind. Revealing the truth is difficult and requires serious work and time. An intentional claim in the digital can grow with the snowball effect. Numerous people exert enormous energy to reveal the disinformation produced by a sole individual or group. Every social media user must act responsibly to prevent information pollution – especially during times of disaster.

FAULT LINES UNDER KAHRAMANMARAŞ

A great mobilization effort will be launched in the upcoming period aimed at rebuilding the cities affected by the earthquakes, and ensuring the victims have homes again. The initial excavation towards this objective will start in March. The construction of these houses requires a budget planning of about 400 billion TL for 2023 and 600 billion TL for 2024. The new buildings will be constructed not in the demolished areas but in the new settlement areas to be opened. Considering particularly that there are four separate fault lines under Kahramanmaraş, it becomes essential to construct the new buildings on suitable ground. Ground survey operations need to be conducted in this scope in cooperation with NGOs and universities.

TOKİ’S ROLE IN CONSTRUCTION OPERATIONS

Though the constructions built by TOKİ, Türkiye's government-backed housing agency, are criticized in terms of aesthetics, their sturdiness was revealed in the recent earthquakes. Not even one of the 133,759 housings built by TOKİ in the 10 earthquake-hit provinces collapsed. This shows how seriously TOKİ takes its job. It is for this exact reason that TOKİ must assume an important role in the reconstruction process, in order to prevent similar pain in the future. TOKİ should be the only one involved in the construction of the new buildings. The public has serious expectations in this regard.