Anadolu Agency unveils anti-disinformation system in Berlin

BERLIN

Anadolu Agency introduced its advanced photo-tracking system at a major gathering of European news agencies in Berlin on Thursday.

Ural Yesil, Anadolu Agency’s Director of Human Resources and Administrative Affairs, told participants that, news agencies face bigger challenges in combating disinformation or manipulating attempts in today’s digital world.

“Our Photo Tracking System (PTS) is fully created by the staff of Anadolu Agency IT Department for fighting disinformation, blocking manipulations and black propagandas,” he said, adding that the advanced system enables Anadolu Agency to track its own visual content by detecting where, when and how they are used by the third parties.

Yesil gave detailed information on the PTS system by telling participants how it was used last year to counter a disinformation campaign by the terrorist PKK/YPG group during Turkey’s counter-terrorism operation in northern Syria.

“Social media accounts affiliated with the terrorist YPG group used various achieve photos of Anadolu Agency in their disinformation campaign in order to manipulate the world public opinion,” he said.

Yesil gave more than a dozen examples how the PTS system detected Anadolu Agency’s photos from Gaza, or photos showing injured children following the Assad regime’s airstrikes in Syria, were used by the YPG-affiliated accounts as if these had occurred during Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch early last year to liberate Afrin, northwestern Syria, from the terrorist groups.

Yesil underlined that the advanced tools of the PTS system helped Anadolu Agency to reveal YPG’s disinformation campaign, and subsequently accounts disseminating fake news were removed by the social media networks.

The conference of European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) convened executives of Europe’s leading news agencies and senior journalists to discuss ways to combat disinformation in the digital age.

Anadolu Agency was represented at the conference by Metin Mutanoglu, deputy director general and editor-in-chief, and Yesil.