Organized by ASULIS Discourse, Dialog and Democracy Laboratory of Hrant Dink Foundation, the panel titled “Finding truth: Strategies to combat misinformation”, was held on January 15, 2018 in Anarad Hığutyun Building. The speakers of the panel which was moderated by journalist Işın Eliçin, were the editor of journo.com.tr and academician Orhan Şener and Doğruluk Payı Digital Operations Coordinator Denizcan Sarı.

Following Işın Elçin’s opening speech, Orhan Şener underlined that what the notion of post-truth signifies is not merely “lie” but rather it includes half-truths or untold truths. He remarked that in the age of post-truth, the field of politics dominated by rational discussions based on truths has been replaced another type of political field where identities, positions and tribalism have become dominant. Pointing out the fact that the notion of post-truth was selected as the word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, Şener commented on the role of Brexit campaigns in United Kingdom and the election campaigns run by Donald Trump United States of America in popularization of the notion of post-truth. Lastly, Orhan Şener noted that the public space provided by digital media has lost its function by becoming distant from a rational ground, and we have arrived at a point we call “post-truth”.

Denizcan Sarı, mentioned the notion of “fact-checking”, a political action examples of which have been seen since mid-90’s in USA, which entered into our lives through the platforms analyzing the statements of politicians via database. Sarı remarked that Doğruluk Payı was established in 2014 following the raise of distrust in mainstream media after Gezi protests in 2013, the restrictions on freedom of speech in media and the dissemination of fake news. Sarı also noted that after they analyze the compatibility between data and context in the politicans’ statements, they share the analysis of the data with public through the platform.