May 14 operation from Twitter: Lies of bot accounts brought forward

After Twitter edited its 'Private for you and Followed' stream, the posts in the accounts that social media users do not follow started to fall into the users' stream automatically. In particular, the posts of dissident names, supporters of terrorist organizations and fugitives were shared by millions of people, while local and national content began to be covered up on the social media platform. The fact that the events coincided with the May 14 presidential and parliamentary general elections caused a great deal of suspicion. In Twitter, which has become a space for accounts controlled by algorithmic approaches as well as real people's accounts, 'bot accounts' have started to be used effectively by individuals and terrorist organizations serving a specific purpose. For instance, after the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş's Pazarcık and Elbistan districts on February 6, posts containing disinformation were shared on various platforms, primarily on social media, in order to create anxiety, panic and fear among citizens. Of the 5 million 362 thousand 730 bot accounts that shared 266 million 334 thousand 80 tweets on Twitter between February 6 and March 13, 1 million 493 thousand 256 were made by bot accounts managed by FETÖ/PDY and PKK. Many social users reacted to the posts they encountered with the approach of the May 14 elections.

May 14 operation from Twitter: Lies of bot accounts brought forward

Shortly before the May 14 presidential elections in Türkiye, it was revealed that the FETÖ and pro-PKK accounts were deliberately exposed to social media users, especially on Twitter, under the name of the 'For You and Following' algorithm.