We have a lot to repair

When I heard about the grievous mine disaster in Soma in Turkey's western Manisa province last week on Tuesday evening, I quickly turned on the TV and opened Twitter like the other millions. There was not just grief, prayer or news. There was anger, accusation and even calls for anti-government protests to start all over again.

Of course, people felt anger at the authorities, as did I, but it was just like some people were changing the course. Instead of prayers or hopes for the miners trapped inside the mine, tweets from some accounts were targeting not only the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) but also their voters, even the people of Soma and the miners.

While some tweets were claiming the people in Soma deserved that since they voted for the AK Party, some were whipping their followers into fury with agitating words such as "We should kill them before they kill us" or "I hope their babies die in their arms," et cetera.
Hate speech was followed by false tweets alleging that the government was hiding the death counts or there were hundreds of Syrians in there, et cetera.

It was a shame. Within the first moment, even before getting the first news, how could people look for a chance to take advantage against the government without at least some respect for the victims and their families?

Apart from the hatred based on the recent polarization, the distraction made me remember Hurricane Sandy, which hit millions in 2012. The Pew Research Center shared some interesting statistics regarding Hurricane Sandy-related activity on Twitter during the devastation, as many Americans turned to the site to share and discuss what was happening.

Accordingly, the largest share of Twitter conversation about Hurricane Sandy, a full 34 percent, involved news and information in a three-day period, while the second largest portion, 25 percent, included photos and videos of the storm, post-storm destruction or falsified pictures. The share of prayers and well wishes was 13 percent, including Twitter users' urging their followers to make donations.

What is more, some turned to humor; 14 percent of the tweets related to devastationrelated jokes, while 6 percent tried to be entertaining, voicing enjoyment that school would be canceled. The share of tweets containing political comments over Sandy was 8 percent.

Some Twitter accounts shared false information as well as fake pictures. One of them was an account belonging to Shashank Tripathi, a hedge fund analyst and campaign manager for a GOP candidate for Congress. He claimed on his Twitter account that the power company Con Edison would shut down power to all of Manhattan, that Con Edison workers were trapped in a facility and that the floor of the New York Stock Exchange had flooded.

Several news organizations, including CNN, shared his original tweets. He later apologized, taking full responsibility and resigning from his campaign position.

Vicious, insensitive or self-seeking people are everywhere. But people do not take responsibility, apologize or resign from their positions in Turkey for sharing false information during emergencies - neither do the liars nor a prime minister's advisor who was caught on camera kicking a person in the town in grief. After our mourning, we should also repair that habit.