İletişim ve Diplomasi

Öz

Thanks to the rapid pace of social media platforms, individuals can now access information more quickly. While unlimited and swift communication, along with instant access to information, offers significant advantages to users, it can also bring about numerous disadvantages and challenges. The dissemination of false and erroneous information during the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled countries to combat disinformation while tackling the outbreak. In our contemporary era, social media transforms ordinary individuals into simultaneous content consumers and producers. Echo chambers play a pivotal role, rapidly amplifying news, claims, and content that gain substantial interaction, thus leading to the propagation of disinformation before the accuracy of the association, distortion, or claim is properly discerned. In this study conducted between March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic, and March 2, 2021, when the Ministry of Health lifted the outdoor mask mandate during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 37 instances of false or misleading news shared on social media were collected and analysed by Teyit.org. The data were compiled using the document analysis method and were subjected to descriptive analysis. According to the research findings, the most prevalent form of disinformation is distortion, amounting to 19 cases. Another noteworthy discovery is that a significant majority of the accounts posting on Teyit.org employ pseudonyms, and these pieces of disinformation are disseminated from fake accounts that do not employ genuine identities. Media literacy emerges as the foremost defence mechanism against this form of disinformation within the realm of social media.