Istanbul: The 14-second video was shown by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as evidence that his opponent in the election on Sunday was working "hand in hand" with banned Kurdish militants.
The opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attempted to rally his supporters in the video, which was aired at a sizable rally and broadcast live on TV.
The PKK, a terrorist organisation outlawed in Turkiye, then repeated that call while clapping their hands to the tune of Kilicdaroglu's campaign jingle. Erdogan's intended message was crystal clear: the leader of the secular opposition had joined forces with "terrorists."
The campaign for one of the most crucial and closely contested elections in Turkish history was tainted by a montage, one of the most recent examples of misinformation.
Kilicdaroglu, whose campaign has received support from Turkiye's leading pro-Kurdish party, fumed on Tuesday, "How can a person sitting in the president's chair stoop this low."
Kilicdaroglu, who is running neck and neck with Erdogan, asserts that "foreign hackers" hired by Erdogan's team are putting together deepfakes, which are manipulated videos and soundbites intended to discredit opponents days before the election. He added, "Dear Russian friends," on Twitter on Thursday.He said, without elaborating, "You are behind the montages, conspiracies, deepfake content, and tapes that were exposed in this country.
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"Get your hands off the Turkish state if you want our friendship after May 15." In return, Erdogan claimed that his rival employed "an army of trolls" in his response."You are spreading false information and lies. Erdogan said to the opposition leader on television, "You are coming up with schemes that even the devil would not have thought of.Turkiye's parliament passed a law making the dissemination of "fake news" punishable by up to three years in prison, turning the country's social media platforms into a political battleground last October.
Weeks later, Kilicdaroglu became one of the first people to be charged with a crime for claiming that Erdogan's Islamic-based administration was to blame for a "methamphetamine epidemic" in Turkiye.
The Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatovic, issued a warning in May, stating that the "extensive use" of the law was "chilling journalists and critical voices."
Such accusations and counter-accusations, according to Suncem Kocer, a disinformation expert at Istanbul's Koc University, had never been as prominent in prior Turkish elections.
Everyone is attempting to define what misinformation is, according to Kocer. It is now used as a tool to essentially criminalise the opposing candidate or party. This is a novel concept.
However, according to Gulin Cavus, co-founder of Turkiye's Teyit fact-checking website, the actual methods of disinformation dissemination are still the same.
They can be seen "on social networks, but also during meetings," in pictures that have been cropped or taken out of context.
In one instance from earlier this week, Erdogan projected an excerpt from a newspaper article, implying that Kilicdaroglu had been convicted of fraud in 1996.
Kilicdaroglu had actually denounced fraud committed by people who took advantage of Turkiye's social security agency, which he then headed, in the original article, which Teyit journalists quickly discovered.
With just a little training in media and the use of digital tools, these videos can have a significant impact on viewers, according to Cavus.Some of the misinformation uses tried-and-true techniques, like phoney campaign literature.
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One leaflet purporting to be from Kilicdaroglu's group calls for the removal of Turkish troops from Syria and the cessation of all hostilities with the PKK.
All of this false information, according to Kocer, is unlikely to affect the outcome of Sunday's election, where a high turnout of Turkiye's 64 million voters is anticipated.
The real threat, according to Kocer, is an atmosphere that is more polarised as a result of disinformation.
