Investigation into some social media messages about forest fires

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the messages which were posted on social media under the hashtag #HelpTurkey amid the forest fires raging across the country and allegedly constitute a crime, the state-AA reported today (August 5).

The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has announced the investigation in a written statement. Referring to the technical analysis of the posts shared by some news and social media websites since July 28, 2021, when the forest fires broke out, the Prosecutor's Office has said, "...it has been detected that some people and groups, in an organized manner via real or bot accounts, tried to create worry, fear and panic in society and degrade the state and government of the Republic of Turkey."

Accordingly, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched "an ex officio investigation against the posts detected to constitute crimes."

What happened?

Shortly after social media messages were shared under the hashtags #HelpTurkey and #GlobalCall amid raging forest fires across the country, especially in the south, Presidency's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun made a statement about the campaign and stated, "The so-called aid campaign has been launched to make our state look incapable."

Amid criticisms about the insufficient firefighting efforts and aircraft and the refusal of incoming offers of help, some social media posts had been shared on Twitter under the hashtag #helpturkey.

Making a statement about the campaign that started on August 1, 2021 and received 2.5 million tweets, Fahrettin Altun said, "Every good-intentioned aid and contribution is required by our national unison. However, this so-called aid campaign that was organized from abroad and from a single center as of this evening has been launched with ideological motives and aimed at making our state look incapable and undermining our state-nation unison."

Alleging that most of the information shared on social media platforms, instant messaging groups and forums was fake news, Altun said, "As our President said, we will compensate for all our losses, except for our losses of live, and we will put out this fire razing us inside."

Following Altun's statement, a counter-hashtag to the #HelpTurkey hashtag was opened on social media: #WeDontNeedHelp. (EMK/SD)