Social Media as a Propaganda Tool

Today, people of almost every age have a smartphone or computer. As a result of this, most people have opened accounts on social media sites such as facebook, twitter, instagram etc. and spend a significant part of their time following these accounts. They also share everything that happens in these accounts. Therefore, when we analyse the social media accounts of any person in detail, it is possible to make a profile of that person and get at least an idea about that person.

By profile, I mean the level of education, marital status, personal tastes, family structure, what they eat, drink, religious or political views, interests, emotional structure and even love life, in short, almost everything that makes a person appear as the person they are in the real world. I have heard that today's fortune tellers also frequently use this method of profile analysis. While you are waiting in line to have your name written down and have your fortune read, a person does a short research on your social media accounts, tells this to the fortune teller through the headset, and when you go in, the fortune teller can say things that seem quite consistent by using the information he has obtained about you according to this information.

Of course, fortune tellers are not the only ones who use this information. Many people, companies, intelligence organisations, sects, congregations and some official institutions, especially social media sites themselves, also use this information. When you visit social media or shopping websites, you may have seen adverts for books similar to the one you ordered online the day before. This situation shows that these sites record your interests with an algorithm they have written, in other words, they collect a kind of biographical intelligence about you, store this information and use it as they wish.

Since this method is a very cheap, risk-free and reliable method of collecting information, it is likely that intelligence services are now using social media accounts and tracking your transactions on the internet for biographical intelligence instead of the methods we watch in spy films. From this point of view, it would not be wrong to say that these or similar methods are also used by security forces and intelligence organisations in Turkey. In fact, it is occasionally reported in the media that some people are being prosecuted against the government and some high-ranking state officials for their posts on social media.

When we look at the incident in general, it shows that everything you write on social media, every post you like, every comment you make, and even every product we buy on the internet is monitored by someone and may one day come up against you in line with the interests of those who monitor you. Many people in Turkey have already learnt the consequences of this through bitter experiences during the FETÖ conspiracies. For this reason,it is necessary to pay attention to everything we do or share on social media. Since this issue is constantly discussed in the public opinion, I do not see the need to dwell on it further. Instead, I will try to provide information on a much more dangerous issue, which is the propaganda and psychological operation activities carried out through social media.

The analyses and profiling activities carried out through the social media accounts mentioned above are not only carried out on an individual basis, but also on a nationwide basis according to regions, religions, sects, political views and other similar aspects. The purpose of this is to prepare messages suitable for the target audience, to disseminate these messages on social media and to create an infrastructure for propaganda in this way.

As a matter of fact, it is possible to see some posts on social media that appear to have been prepared and published as a result of such social profiling activities. Those who made these posts appear to have done a good work. As far as it is understood from the posts, these focal points must have realised as a result of their studies that the reading habits of our society are weak, that people have a weakness for interesting things written on the internet, and that they are content with reading only the titles or the first few sentences of these.

It is also understood that they have determined that there is a general opinion that the articles published on the internet and supported by the comments of a large number of people are correct, and that no one investigates the accuracy of such articles. This is because their posts seem to have been prepared with these principles in mind.

For example, recently there have been posts claiming that Alevis are not Turks (Turkmen), that Alevism is an Anatolian belief, that it has nothing to do with Islam, and that it is the continuation of some Anatolian beliefs of antiquity. A book has even been written and published on this subject. This book and the articles published through these websites are a method also used by some enemies of the republic and Atatürk. First, someone writes a completely fabricated book that is not based on any documents, and after a while, another person who cites this book as a source writes a new nonsense book. In time, a literature on this subject is created, consisting of many books and internet articles, with everyone citing each other as sources. When I tell people who frequently share this kind of information that their claims are baseless and unfounded, they immediately cite the books in this literature and the articles on websites as sources. However, dozens of books and publications all contain information derived from that first fabricated book.

For example, PKK members have established a so-called Alevi association in Germany with the control and support of German intelligence, and through this association they are trying to separate Alevis from their Turkish and Islamic roots. Since they could not succeed in dividing the country only by Kurdish separatism, they were trying to divide the Turkish people on the basis of religion and sect.

In fact, such endeavours are not new. The imperialist states worked intensively on Alevis in the last period of the Ottoman Empire in order to divide Turkey. American and British missionaries worked intensively especially in Tunceli and its surroundings, claiming that the people in this region were archaic societies dating back to ancient times, that they later accepted Christianity, and that they became Muslim in appearance and Christian in fact under the pressure of the Turks. By identifying the trinity of Allah-Muhammad-Ali with the trinity of Jesus-Spiritual Jerusalem and God, they have propagandised that the Christian faith continues, only the names have changed.

It is understood from the news in today's press organs that there is an increase in the number of people converting to Christianity in this region, that the propaganda made at that time is continued today by adding new claims and that this propaganda is effective. They deceive some of our people by saying ‘You are actually of Armenian origin’ or ‘You are actually descended from former Christians’. However, recent studies on tombstones show that people in this region are descended from the Central Asian Turkish tradition and culture.

The same thing is being done in the Black Sea region. Although these efforts do not yield great results, the Greek propaganda mechanism, which makes some people believe that they are of Pontic origin even though they are originally Turkish, gives them fabricated books they have prepared and publishes them under their own names. Such publications on the internet are shared not only by foreign centres, but also by centres that sometimes appear to be ‘local and national’.

In this context, ‘No one will investigate the original anyway.’ With this in mind, dozens of fabricated, unfounded posts are shared on social media. It seems that the circles making such posts have analysed well that most of the social media users only pay attention to slogans and generally do not read texts longer than a few sentences. Because they also use a technique called "Purposeful Selection ’ in their propaganda and produce propaganda content in accordance with the information obtained from these analyses.

The technique of purposeful selection, in the simplest terms, is to select a part of an event that serves a certain purpose rather than the whole event, or to select some sentences that will serve a purpose rather than the whole of a book and tell people. In this way, an attempt is made to make the narrated event understood in a very different way from the original. The sentences chosen for these purposes can also be distorted. Thus, people who are known not to read the whole book are made to think that similar views are defended throughout the book when they read one or a few sentences. Such propaganda techniques are especially effective in societies that do not have the habit of research and reading.

For this reason, one should not act by thinking that what is shared on social media is absolutely true. Because, even if not all of them, a significant part of them are just propaganda posts of different circles inside or outside. For this reason, do not believe every post you see. Also, don't see social media as a place where you can share your thoughts and complain with your friends. Because social media is not such a place. Nothing you say there is read only by your friends. It is read and analysed by many different circles.

Then these analyses are used against you in line with the aims and interests of those who make them. It is not only used legally, it is also used for propaganda purposes to seduce your mind and most of the time you do not even realise it. Remember; social media is an area where not only some of what is written, but also a significant part of the names of the people in front of you are not true. It is useful to look at everything with scepticism. Because doubt does not put people at ease, but it also protects them from many possible troubles.