NEWSROOM

Working on the information ecosystem, Teyit prepared a report on misinformation spread on the internet about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The report, which reveals that periods such as conflict and crisis create an environment conducive to the spread of misinformation, draws attention to the importance of new media literacy.

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ISTANBUL (TR) - The verification platform Teyit, which examines suspicious information, analyzed and reported misinformation that it examined during the 44-day conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Network analysis method by Turnusol was also used in the report, in which Teyit examined suspicious content that it encountered or submitted. The report was prepared by Sayyara Mammadova, Seçil Türkkan and Ali Osman Arabacı.

A total of 33 misinformation was detected in the analyzed contents, while it was found that this information was spread with a total of 170 different shares on eight different social media platforms and 28 different news sites. More than 80 percent of these shares were spread through social media, while misinformation was found to be shared in eight different languages, including Azerbaijani and Armenian, as well as Russian and Turkish.

While misinformation spreads most on Twitter, Telegram poses serious risk

Eight out of every 10 shares containing false information were spread through social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, YouTube, TikTok, Weibo and VKontakte. The total interaction received by the shares was 1 million 723 thousand 532.

When the research data obtained by the Teyit team were examined, it was seen that misinformation about the conflict was most commonly spread via Twitter with 46 percent, followed by Facebook with 24 percent and Instagram with 17 percent. Telegram, the most used messaging application in Azerbaijan and Armenia, on the other hand, has reached 14 percent of the interaction with false information, although it has a share of 3 percent.

The number of users exposed to misinformation is more than double the total population of the two countries

During the crisis, 31 of the misinformation that Teyit examined was disseminated by various internet sites. 28 different sites, including foreign sources, reported false information. The number of daily visitors to news sites sharing false or misleading claims was calculated as 27 million 936 thousand 730. This figure is more than double the total population of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Most of the conflict images are attributed incorrectly

The report reveals that ‘misattribution’ was most often encountered during the war. 69.9 percent of the images and information shared allegedly belonging to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict consists of false images associated with different events.

Report shows importance of new media literacy

Evaluating the report, Sayyara Mammadova from Teyit said, “Conflict and crisis periods, when emotions rise, create a favorable environment that leads to the intense and rapid spread of false information. With this report we prepared, we wanted to show the reflections of the 44-day conflict process with misinformation in digital media. We, as Teyit ve Teyit Azerbaijani, aim to provide insight to media professionals and institutions in this report, in which we show the problem of misinformation with concrete data. The data revealed by the report show the necessity of an information ecosystem in which Internet users' skepticism has developed and new media literacy is increasing.”