23.01.2025 13:11
Social media influencer Oğuzhan Uğur appeared in court on the grounds of allegations that he made posts claiming the dams had cracked following the earthquake on February 6.
After the earthquakes on February 6, social media influencer Oğuzhan Uğur, who was claimed to have made posts about the dams cracking, appeared before a judge for the first time after an ex officio investigation was initiated against him.
It was alleged that social media influencer Oğuzhan Uğur made posts about the dams cracking after the February 6 earthquake, and an ex officio investigation was launched against Uğur following these posts. In the prepared indictment, Oğuzhan Uğur, Kaan Kayacan, and Ercan Özdemir faced a request for imprisonment of up to 4 years and 6 months for the crime of "publicly disseminating misleading information through the press and broadcasting."
TRIAL ADJOURNED Social media influencer Oğuzhan Uğur appeared before a judge for the first time. The trial was held at the 46th Criminal Court of First Instance in the Istanbul Courthouse located in Çağlayan. The defendants Oğuzhan Uğur, Kaan Kayacan, Ercan Özdemir, the complainant party, and lawyers attended the hearing. The court panel decided to write to the Disaster Management of Hatay and Kahramanmaraş to inquire whether the aid was disrupted after the tweet was sent and to hear the witnesses who were not heard, thus adjourning the trial to a later date.
"I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE PASSWORD TO THE ACCOUNT" The defendant Ercan Özdemir, who works at the call center, stated, "A few days after February 6 last year, I was one of hundreds of volunteers at Babala TV. I was called by someone claiming to be from the Ministry of Culture at night. There is a phone record. I was working at the call center. There was also a verification team and a tweet team. After ending the phone call, I directed it to the verification team. I have no knowledge of the continuation of the incident. I have no information about the tweets that were published. I was working at the call center. I do not accept the statement that Oğuzhan Uğur's tweet was sent by me. I didn't even have the password to the account," he said.
"OUR AIM WAS TO HELP" The defendant Kaan Kayacan, who was part of the verification team, stated, "I have been working at Babala TV for 4 and a half years. I am currently serving as a director. On the mentioned date, we gathered after the shoot and got involved in such a process. Our aim was to help people. As time went on, more and more volunteers joined. I do not remember sending the mentioned tweet; I did not send this tweet. I do not accept the findings that suggest I sent the posts. There were many workers there. There was incredible fatigue and sleeplessness. Considering these, there may have been some confusion," he expressed.
"IF I WANTED TO CREATE A FUROR, I WOULD HAVE DONE IT FROM MY ACCOUNT WITH MANY FOLLOWERS" In his defense, Oğuzhan Uğur stated, "As soon as the earthquake occurred, we left home and went there. We knew there was a need for help. Since we had the means and opportunity, we decided to come together and help. We received assistance from many government officials. Later, we left my team in Istanbul and went to Hatay. Many volunteers came to our team in Hatay. We held a meeting with those there and established a verification team due to the numerous false reports. All the phones there had records as well. After I returned from Hatay, 1,100 people volunteered and worked hard. During this time, I saw a tweet that said, 'Why did you spread the news that the dam burst? You are spreading false news, Oğuzhan Uğur.' I replied to the tweet. Following this, news began to spread on social media that I was spreading false news. If I wanted to create a furor in the region, I would have done it from my account with many more followers. I gathered my team and asked. When I first inquired about the incident, I was told that it was confirmed by Ercan Özdemir and Kaan Kayacan. Later, I was called to the courthouse. When I was asked who sent this tweet, due to 5 days of sleeplessness, I gave the names of Ercan and Kaan from the verification team, but later I learned that they did not send these tweets. The tweet was removed because it was erroneous. It is not possible to create a furor with a single tweet in an environment where the internet does not work, especially when we have so much power to do so, and being accused of such a crime demoralizes us. Despite our investigations, we still could not determine who sent the tweet in question. I have no knowledge regarding the sending and removal of the tweet that is the subject of the case," he said.
The complainant Hasan Kılıç stated, "I am also a Twitter follower; I saw that tweet. I heard from friends working in the region that there were disruptions in the area due to this post. Before this tweet, I had not seen any news or posts regarding the danger of the dam on the internet or news channels," he said.
"THE DAM BURST NEWS COST US 3 HOURS" The complainant Hasret Yıldırım stated, "I am the Editor-in-Chief of Hodri Meydan Newspaper. I followed the news not with a troll mentality but with a journalist's mentality. After this news was published, there was a statement from Orhan Parlak, the leader of the IHH Search and Rescue Team: 'The news of the dam bursting cost us exactly 3 and a half hours. Everything was locked down, and we had to stop the work. We intervened to stop many people, but the chaotic environment caused significant losses.' Upon seeing his statement, I filed a complaint based on Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code for publicly disseminating misleading information. These tweets were deleted 3-4 hours later. I am the complainant. Is Oğuzhan patriotic? He is patriotic. Even though 2 years have passed since the incident, they still have not been able to determine who sent the tweet. Not only is the person who sent the tweet not present, but the person who deleted it is also unknown. So who is guilty? I see myself not in the courtroom but in the Babala TV studio," he said.
The court panel adjourned the trial to a later date to address the missing issues.
FROM THE INDICTMENT The indictment stated that social media influencer Oğuzhan Uğur made a post from the account named 'Babala TV' on the day after the two major earthquakes that occurred on February 6, 2023, claiming that a dam had burst in the village of Kumçatı in Kahramanmaraş and that the Yarseli Dam in Hatay Antakya had cracked. In the indictment, 8 people were listed as 'complainants,' while Oğuzhan Uğur, Kaan Kayacan, and Ercan Özdemir were listed as 'suspects.' The prepared indictment included Oğuzhan Uğur's statement. Uğur stated that the posts from the mentioned account were made by his team and that they worked voluntarily during the earthquake. In his statement, Uğur said, "Before we worked as a team, we warned them not to share any posts on Twitter without verification. After we received such information about a furor following the posts, we reached the audio recording and verification of the posts after our checks. This person is the suspect Ercan Özdemir, who is in the phone conversation team. Information was obtained, and after this verification, a tweet was sent regarding the Yarseli Dam," he stated.