Following the investigation launched against Turkey’s popular YouTuber Oğuzhan Uğur on disinformation charges for a tweet he wrote while collecting donations for earthquake victims, the YouTuber on Monday handed the prosecution documents that showed the information in the tweet was originally sourced from a minister.
Since the 6 February earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people, Uğur worked with a large team to deliver aid to the disaster area and collect donations for earthquake victims. He mobilised a wide audience from his YouTube channel Babala TV, where he aims to bring together different political views.
Due to a delay in rescue teams and state aid reaching the earthquake disaster zones, Uğur and several other famous figures organised to direct volunteer teams to save earthquake victims under the rubble and to collect donations to deliver aid to the region.
Uğur, widely known as a nationalist, continues to collect large amounts of donations together with AHBAP, a charity organisation founded by musician Haluk Levent.
Uğur and his team, networking between volunteers and earthquake victims, shared on 7 February that the major Hatay dam had collapsed, but immediately removed the information as soon as authorities announced that this was not true and that the dam was still standing.
A few days later, on 10 February, the same rumour resurfaced and was shared by several Twitter accounts and websites, and rescue efforts were halted due to the ensuing panic in the region.
Even before the investigation, the YouTuber, together with AHBAP founder Levent, was targeted by media organisations close to the government due to the large number of funds they had raised for earthquake victims.
Two days before the disinformation investigation launched against Uğur, Berk Can Doğan, a board member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), targeted Levent on his social media account, implying that AHBAP was not reliable for donations. Doğan closed his account after his tweet received massive backlash.
“We are under an incredibly organised and malicious attack,” Uğur said via Twitter on Sunday.
A few hours later, he released a video and announced that the information, which was cited as the reason for the investigation against him, came from someone they confirmed to be a ministry official, and that he would present the audio recordings and documents to the prosecutor.
Uğur announced on 10 February that they had collected TL29 million ($1,538,000) for earthquake victims in the first 72 hours after the disaster.
