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Turkish President Erdoğan’s challenger warns against ‘Cambridge Analytica’ type election interference

In a social media post on Monday evening (May 1), main opposition presidential candidate and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu warned officials from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) against any attempts to manipulate voter preferences online in the last days before the upcoming elections. In his post, Kılıçdaroğlu referenced the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal in which millions of Facebook users’ private information was compromised in an attempt to influence election outcomes in the United States and United Kingdom. Turkey heads to the polls on May 14 to vote for president and members of parliament. 

Kılıçdaroğlu’s social media post from Monday night said the following:

“There are two days left until the final ten days [before the election]. Let me give my final warning. Fahrettin Altun, Serhat and their teammates Çağatay and Evren; The dark web world you are trying to deal with will lead you into the hands of foreign intelligence. Playing Cambridge Analytica is beyond your capacity, boys. THIS IS MY FINAL WARNING!”

Fahrettin Altun is Turkey’s current Communications Minister, while the other individuals mentioned by Kılıçdaroğlu are Serhat Eroğlu, who heads the Communication Ministry’s Department of Data Processing, as well as Çağatay Özdemir and Evren Başar, who serve as Altun’s assistants.

Altun responds

Responding to Kılıçdaroğlu’s warnings not to interfere in the upcoming elections, Communications Minister Altun responded in a Twitter post early Monday morning:

“We know very well why you are making this statement. In order to protect democracy and public interest, we will continue to neutralize troll networks on social media, and their methods of manipulating social media using fake accounts. We are at the service of our nation. The will of the nation is sacred to us. We trust our leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. We are working for the ideal of the Turkish Century. We fight against disinformation, which we see as one of the biggest enemies of democracy, and inform the national and international public in an accurate, fast and transparent manner. We will continue to serve our nation with a sense of responsibility. Our appreciation lies with our great nation.” 

‘Deep fakes’

Reports from Tuesday morning indicated that the warning from Kılıçdaroğlu had been inspired by intelligence received by his CHP party that the president’s party plans to use ‘deep fake’ style videos and sound recordings, as well as Cambridge Analytica-style techniques in the last 10 days leading up to the election, with the goal of tanking Kılıçdaroğlu’s campaign just before voters go to the polls. The report indicated that such a campaign would be carried out through the Communication Ministry, which Fahrettin Altun heads.

Disinformation Law

The accusations leveled by Kılıçdaroğlu against Altun follow years of increasing censorship of online content by AKP officials in Turkey. Fahrettin Altun and the Communication Ministry have played a major role in the implementation of Turkey’s new ‘Disinformation Law’, which was passed by the Turkish parliament and then went into effect in October 2022. The law was controversial from the outset and has been labelled by opposition parties as the ‘Censorship Law’ because of the way it makes it easier for the government to imprison individuals due to content posted online. Those who post online information deemed to be ‘misleading’ by government officials are subject to a 1-3 year prison sentence. In addition, the law requires foreign news agencies producing content consumed by the Turkish public to open local branches within Turkey or face closure.

Cambridge Analytica scandal

The original Cambridge Analytica scandal took place in 2018 when the British political consulting firm was implicated in the unauthorized use of over 50 million Facebook users’ information against their knowledge. The user data had been collected throughout the 2010s from online quizzes taken by Facebook users and then used by the company in order to aid the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. It was also alleged that the company had played a similar role in influencing the 2016 Brexit vote that saw the United Kingdom leave the European Union. Cambridge Analytica shut down following the scandal, and a testimony by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the US Congress regarding the scandal attracted major media attention.

Bize destek olun

Medyascope sizlerin sayesinde bağımsızlığını koruyor, sizlerin desteğiyle 50’den fazla çalışanı ile, Türkiye ve dünyada olup bitenleri sizlere aktarabiliyor. 

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