False news spreads 6 times faster than true news, and people accept during crises and disasters to circulate and share false news without scrutiny. Is everything that is published about the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey true?
The “Shababat” program (9/2/2023) followed the truth about some of the videos circulating about the earthquake in Syria and Turkey on social media and verified their authenticity, as a video clip under the title “a small tsunami hits the eastern coast of Turkey and northern Syria” spread on the platforms, but it turned out that The matter is not related to the tsunami in Syria and Turkey, but rather it is captured from the coast of San Diego in the US state of California of a storm that caused high waves last January.
The pioneers of social media platforms also shared another video, published under the title "The explosion of a nuclear plant in Turkey, following the devastating earthquake," noting that this clip garnered 1.5 million views, but it was proven that no nuclear explosion occurred, as was promoted in the clip, and Turkey's nuclear plant is under control. The building is not working and was not damaged. As for the published video, it dates back to the events of the Beirut Port explosion in 2020.
As another example of false news, a video was spread widely on social media under the title "The moment a residential building collapsed due to the recent earthquake that struck Turkey", and it was watched by thousands who believed that this collapse occurred in the earthquake, but the truth is that the video is old and dates back to the moment a building collapsed in Florida. in the United States two years ago.
An earthquake of souls
The tweeters interacted greatly with the circulation of these clips, as the activist Abdul Basit Al-Shaji stressed the terror it sows in the souls and wrote, "Fake news and rumors that spread extensively on social media and news groups in moments of disasters, wars and calamities work to terrorize people and spread panic among them, its effects It is more difficult for them than earthquakes and wars most of the time.”
Tweeter Ayham linked fake news to media education and said, "I believe that the absence of the concept of media education and information among some leads them to misuse social networks, which results in many practices such as bullying, circulating fake news, and spreading rumors."
As for the singer Wadad, she described these clips as disastrous, and said, "The amount of clips and news that spread - which is a mistake - is catastrophic, and everything that is in a disaster will happen like this, and God has become necessary to stop them at their limit."
Activist Dhafer Muhammad Al-Ajmi also considered that these clips shake souls and spread panic, and commented, "The earth shook with its inhabitants in Turkey and Syria and it ended, so that the victims could devote themselves to the massive destruction and losses, then the patients began, from behind their devices, to broadcast an earthquake of false news, rumors, horrible pictures and videos to terrify people and spread panic, so I quake." souls".
Twitter blocking
Because of the fake news, the Turkish government blocked the Twitter platform for more than 12 hours in Turkey, and the platform was restarted at dawn today, Thursday, but Turkish opponents say that the blocking came due to criticism of the government's management of the disaster and exposing its failure, in addition to that Twitter and TikTok are used by people under the rubble to ask The help.
On this step, Turkish Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Omar Fatih Sayan said, "I spoke with officials at Twitter and reminded them of their responsibilities towards our country after this disaster. We expect more cooperation in combating disinformation."
In turn, the owner of Twitter, the American billionaire Elon Musk, wrote, "The Turkish government has informed the company that it will soon re-enable full access to the Twitter platform in the country."