A New Dilemma for Turkish Public Administration: Combating Disinformation in the Context of Public Policy

Today, when technological developments and digitalisation have become widespread rapidly, it has become quite easy to access and disseminate information. However, this process has also led to an increase in misleading and false information, thereby posing serious threats to individuals, social order, and public administration. Disinformation, which refers to systematically produced and disseminated misleading and manipulative activities aimed at specific goals, is a pressing issue that currently occupies the agenda of many countries due to the grave dangers it entails. Accordingly, the study addresses disinformation, which has become a significant problem, with a focus on Türkiye, and analyzes the legal, institutional, and practical dimensions of the fight against disinformation within the context of public policy. The study includes the phenomenon of disinformation, the effects of disinformation on public administration, and the developments that pave the way for disinformation. The aim of the study is to reveal the effects of disinformation on public administration and to contribute to the development of mechanisms to combat it. In terms of methodology, the study makes use of the literature and the process model from public policy approaches. The study concludes that there is a directly proportional relationship between technological transformation and disinformation, that public administration is one of the most significantly affected mechanisms by disinformation, and that the fight against disinformation in Türkiye has recently taken on an institutional form. Due to the limited number of studies addressing the issue of disinformation in the context of public policy, this study is expected to contribute to the literature.