Social media can lead to chaos, anarchy: Turkish official

By Gozde Bayar

ANTALYA, Turkiye (AA) – Social media could lead to chaos and anarchy despite its touting a democratic and transparent process, a senior Turkish official warned Saturday.

“The new communication environment has an anarchic side. When social media came out, a transparent and democratic process was promised, but today we see that it can lead to chaos and anarchy,” Mucahit Kucukyilmaz, a top adviser to the Turkish president, said as part of the Stratcom Youth: International Young Communicators Forum.

Kucukyilmaz told young communicators at the forum in the Turkish resort city of Antalya that the modern communication environment, especially social media, can degenerate into “lawlessness.”

He stressed the importance of placing social media on “moral ground” and having a healthy relationship with social media by creating distance.

The field of communications, and its ability to influence and transform others, is not equipped with morality in the real sense, but merely “dry rationality,” he said.

On the disadvantages of modern communications, he warned of rampant disinformation on social media. He said when fake news spreads, it costs dearly to replace it with the truth.

“Fake news can get millions of retweets. The spread of the lie in cacophonous environments has risen,” he added.

The six-day forum, co-organized by Turkiye’s Communications Directorate and the Youth and Sports Ministry, welcomed 100 young communicators from 13 countries and 42 universities.