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Teyit closed the Teyitli Bilgi Workshops project for university students with The Glass Room: False Information exhibition. At the event, information ecosystem stakeholders such as Teyit, Wikimedia, NewsLabTurkey and Artificial Agenda discussed whether an internet without misinformation is possible.

Ankara hosted an important event that drew attention to the problem of misinformation on the internet through interactive experiences. The verification platform Teyit, which has been analysing suspicious information on the internet and conducting educational activities to improve digital literacy and critical thinking skills since 2016, opened The Glass Room: False Information exhibition, which opened on 1 June, invited users to think critically and proactively about their relationship with digital technologies.

Final step of the 6-session workshop programme 

The Glass Room, an interactive exhibition developed by Tactical Tech, a Berlin-based international organisation working on human rights, technology and civil liberties, has been translated into Turkish by Hafıza Merkezi. Through informative posters, video animations and interactive applications, the exhibition explored how social media and the internet have changed the relationship with information.

The exhibition was organised as the closing event of Teyit's six-session Teyitli Bilgi Workshops project, which has been running since March with the aim of providing a space where university students can gain awareness about their digital habits and develop their critical thinking skills against the problem of misinformation.

"An internet without misinformation" was discussed in the opening panel 

The closing event, organised with the support of the US Embassy and in collaboration with the Turkish-American Association ConnectUSA American Corner Ankara and Teyit, hosted a panel discussion in addition to the exhibition. The panel was moderated by Gülin Çavuş, co-founder of Teyit and founder of the Artificial Agenda newsletter, and featured speakers Başak Tosun from the Wikimedia Turkey team and Ahmet Alphan Sabancı, strategy officer at NewsLabTurkey. 

Esra Özgür, Teyit's Education Programmes Officer, shared her views on the panel where representatives of organisations working for the improvement of the information ecosystem in Turkey discussed whether an internet without misinformation is possible: "In the panel, Başak Tosun talked about the examples offered by Wikipedia, one of the most visited websites in the world, for another internet, while Ahmet Sabancı talked about what alternative platforms promise us. The need for the active participation of many actors, from social media platforms to individuals, from governments to technology companies, was emphasised for another internet. Participants remembered that producing and sharing without losing the muscle of scepticism is essential for another internet where the problem of misinformation does not exist."

150 people visited in five days

The Glass Room: Wrong Information exhibition was visited by 150 people in the five days it was open, Esra Özgür concluded her evaluations with the following statements: "Rather than focusing on the problem of misinformation alone, the exhibition displays a holistic approach to the problems in the information ecosystem and the current structure of the internet. As Teyit, we asked the participants to consider their general feelings about the developments in artificial intelligence technologies and the extent of the impact of screen time on their decisions through interactive questions that we prepared in line with the exhibition, which suggests thinking about alternatives together. We think that these questions give us the opportunity to review our own experiences and insights into the current structure of technology and the problem of misinformation. As Teyit, we will continue to contribute to the development of sustainable solutions to the problem of misinformation by bringing together different actors in the coming period."