The Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA) launched a new project for the Turkish diaspora in Europe, to raise awareness against fake news and disinformation in the digital age.
The media literacy project consists of a set of online seminars for those between the ages of 18 and 25 pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
It will teach participants how to be a responsible “media reader” and social media user. Seminars will be held in January and the participants can apply on TÜGVA’s website, tugva.org.
TÜGVA said in a statement that since social media has become such a prevalent part of our lives we are more susceptible to "misinformation" from an abundance of sources online, and the challenge lies in finding the reliable ones.
“Social media in particular, helps spread fake news rapidly and to the larger masses. This, in turn, aggravates the disinformation and lead to negative consequences,” the statement said.
The foundation said that due to the climate of disinformation, amid the western media's frequent defamation campaigns against Turkey and Islam, they felt the need to raise awareness among the youth who are avid social media users but less aware of the risks.
