In the aftermath of Meta’s decision; a letter from Teyit.org to followers

A leading Turkish fact-checking organization, Teyit, sent a letter to followers signed by its founder, Mehmet Atakan Foça.

Translated by DeepL

Dear Erkan

In the Age of Pinocchios, it is getting harder and harder to access accurate information. Information that is polluted, distorted, hollowed out and turned into a partisan tool for political and economic interests makes it impossible for us to build a common reality and reach the truth.

Mark Zuckerberg announced the other day that Meta will withdraw from the third-party news verification program starting in the US. Meta’s program, which we have been partnering with in Turkey since 2018, was one of our most important areas of work to prevent the spread of dangerous misinformation on social media platforms.

Over the last seven years, thanks to Meta’s partnership, we have been able to prevent the circulation of misleading information that manipulates voters, divides society by targeting minority groups, and incites anger and anxiety by preventing the public from being properly informed. To put it in numbers, the number of links containing misinformation we have identified so far is more than 18 thousand. We ensured that social media accounts and news websites took the problem of misinformation seriously and corrected a lot of misinformation.

This collaboration reduced the visibility of misinformation on Facebook and Instagram and helped us build a strong financial model. We aimed for a systemic transformation by allocating the resources we obtained to developing programs where we could look at the problem of misinformation holistically, getting to the heart of the problem and making transparency, critical thinking, accurate and unbiased information an indispensable value for every actor in this ecosystem.

However, Zuckerberg’s unfortunate and misinformed statement is surprising neither for us nor for the global fact-checking community. It’s not hard to predict that the new political discourse gaining momentum in the US will provoke more misinformation, more conspiracy theories, more radical and divisive content in the digital world.

We have lost a position and will lose at least half of our revenues this year. However, we feel that dozens of other opportunities have opened up in front of us, and we are eager to fight disinformation with the same enthusiasm as on the first day. We have no choice but to continue working for a healthy information ecosystem. On this path, we need more than ever to know that we have the support of our community, who have long trusted us, followed us, and supported Teyit’s existence at every opportunity.

In Turkey, we share the same reality. We are also aware that in these economic conditions, opportunities are more limited than before. However, we have to say that we will need your financial support as much as your moral support in the coming period. To maintain our 15-person full-time team and the continuity of our current operations, we once again invite you to support Teyit on Patreon.

Mehmet Atakan Foça