The chapter discusses the discourses and policies of disinformation as a tool of authoritarian populism in the Turkish case, focusing on the last five years. With inspiration from Gunitsky’s (2015) formulation of negative and proactive strategies, it is possible to state that initially, the government's discourses and policies on disinformation were reactive to the use of social media during the Gezi protests against the demolition of Gezi Park in Istanbul during the summer of 2013. Currently, these discourses and policies continue in both reactionary and proactive ways through deploying trolls, fabricating fake news to target and criminalise dissent, using state institutions as official verification channels, establishing new official verification channels, and enacting new legislation with the motto of combating disinformation while further curtailing information.

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Gencel Bek, Mine (2024): “Discourses and Policies of Disinformation in Turkey”, in: Martin Echeverría, Sara García Santamaría and Daniel C. Hallin (Eds.): State-sponsored Disinformation Around the Globe: How Politicians Deceive Their Citizens. London, pp. 219–230.