Dr. Hamdi Kavak: Anti-American Misinformation/Disinformation Efforts in Social and Mass Media

Lead Investigators

Hamdi Kavak
Saltuk Karahan (ODU)

Student and Senior Collaborators

Gowri Prathap (former CDS undergraduate student at GMU)
Luke Palmieri (former CDS undergraduate student at GMU)
Ekrem Kaya (former CDS undergraduate student at GMU)
Alex Korb (PhD student at ODU)
Hongyi Wu (Faculty collaborator, former ODU)
Kimberly Perez (Faculty collaborator, TCC)

Project Dates

July 1, 2021 - March 31, 2023

Summary

Our research project investigated the spread of anti-American sentiment in Turkey, analyzing both social media and mass media to understand how disinformation shapes public opinion. Using a robust software system, we tracked millions of Turkish tweets and news articles over several years, identifying peaks of negativity associated with key U.S.-related events, such as President Biden’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide and Turkey’s purchase of S-400 missiles from Russia.

Through sentiment and emotion analysis, we observed that Turkish social media content about the U.S. is often dominated by emotions like disgust, anger, and fear. This trend intensified around specific narratives, such as “national defense necessity” and “national pride,” which were particularly amplified in discussions about Turkey’s strategic decisions and relations with the U.S. Our findings reveal that these narratives are often propagated by both human users and automated accounts, showing how bot-like behavior contributes significantly to the spread of anti-American sentiment.

Our work also extended beyond social media to Turkish mass media outlets, where sentiment analysis revealed a similarly strong negative bias toward the U.S., especially in response to politically charged topics. This disinformation ecosystem—spanning both social and mass media—demonstrates how coordinated narratives are used to amplify political divides and solidify opposition toward the U.S. within Turkey.

Collectively, our studies highlight the complex role of disinformation in shaping public sentiment across borders. They underscore the importance of analyzing both the psychological and technological components of disinformation in order to understand—and potentially counter—its impact on international relations. This research is crucial for designing strategies to manage the influence of foreign disinformation and protect the integrity of information ecosystems.

Publications & Presentations

Prathap, G., Kavak, H., Kaya, E., Palmieri, L., Karahan, S., & Korb, A. (2023, February). Anti-American Stance in Turkey: A Twitter Case Study. In International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, (pp. 309-317).
Korb, R., Karahan, S., Prathap, G., Kaya, E., Palmieri, L., & Kavak, H. (2023, February). S-400s, Disinformation, and Anti-American Sentiment in Turkey. In International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, (pp. 181-188).
Prathap, G., Kaya, E., Palmieri, L., Korb, A., Karahan, S., & Kavak, H. (2022, April). A System to Study Anti-American Misinformation and Disinformation Efforts on Social Media. In 2022 Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium (SIEDS) (pp. 31-36). IEEE.
Palmieri, L., Kaya, E., Prathap, G., Korb, A., Karahan, S., & Kavak, H. (2022, April). Investigating Disinformation Through the Lens of Mass Media: A System Design. In 2022 Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium (SIEDS) (pp. 55-60). IEEE.