Turkish Elections Marred by Disinformation on Social Media

The Turkish elections have been marred by disinformation on social media, with fact checkers struggling to combat a huge volume of misleading news. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will face incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a run-off election on May 28 after securing 45% of the vote. Disinformation has been prevalent on social media, often in the form of manipulated videos, photos and quotes. Some disinformation has also been disseminated by candidates themselves. The media in Turkey is viewed as biased toward Erdoğan. Features on TikTok have been used to spread what has been described as viral disinformation.