A verified Twitter account causing a crisis in the city of Al Khoms

24 September، 2023

A Twitter account published an allegation. The account is called “sanayi ve savunma”, which means “industry and defense”. It is a verified account with the blue badge, with 10,000 followers. The account owner claims that it is affiliated with a Turkish government institution specialized in Turkish military technology news. The allegation stipulates that:

“Turkey has leased a port in Libya for 99 years! The port of Al Khoms no longer available for companies and will be handed over to the Turkish Navy and Land Forces.

The Turkish Armed Forces will establish a military base, and it will be protective to Turkish territorial waters and it will at the same time ensure the safety of commercial ships.”

This tweet attracted many people to interact, and was circulated by several Libyan accounts on social media, and provoked a wide debate among citizens who protested in the city, denouncing what was stated in the alleged agreement.

Verification:

Falso team verified the origin of the account that published the news, and the official account of the institution specialized in Turkish military technology, and it turned out that its official account is different and is followed by about 357 thousand people.

Our team reached the official account of the Turkish Ministry of Defense, which is followed by more than 3 million people, verified by the gray badge since 2016 as it is a government institution. No information was published to confirm the truth of the alleged agreement.

The account that shared the allegation has the blue badge, which is allocated for a monthly subscription that gives users a “blue badge” for a monthly fee. The account of the Turkish Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, has the gray badge, which is allocated to official government accounts.

In the same context, the spokesman of the Government of National Unity, Mohamed Hammouda, denied this allegation yesterday, August 16, in a press conference. He said that what is published on social media pages is false information, stressing that waiving or leasing the Khoms seaport was not put on the table for discussion with any foreign party.

Juma Dabbaj, a member of the Khoms municipal council and leader of the port committee, denied it in recorded media statements confirming that it was not true.

It is worth mentioning that after the spread of the false allegations and protests against it, an armed group formed a suspicious group called “Al Khoms Resistance” and announced in a statement the launch of what they called the Battle of Hani 2 to expel the Turkish forces from the city, as they described it. This shows first hand the bad effects and harm caused by disinformation and false allegations.

Thus, this allegation turned out to be disinformation.