Thread by @canokar

Given we’re asking whether Turkish twitter celebrities are actual people, I’d love to ask who @drsinanerdil is.

His profile photo is from this group photo from a University of Toronto OISE graduation in 2011.

He doesn’t exist outside of twitter.

Yet followed by 62.3k people...

The only other photo I can find of him is the one below. Old bios talked of ODTÜ and living in Canada. Those are gone now.

There are no publications by a Dr Sinan Erdil. In this world of everything being online, it feels impossible that there would be no trail.

He’s been quoted in Turkish media as an expert on the economy. Yet there is no evidence that this person even exists. Perhaps @drsinanerdil might want to shut me up by discussing what he was doing at UoT in 2011 with the OISE graduating class.

Or discuss how he became a Dr?

Or if the person in that photo could reach out to me, it would be amazing to hear who that guy is. If not Dr Sinan, he is known by most in Turkey, including some of the most prominent twitter accounts we have, as a major economist.

Turkish twitter is a hellhole sometimes.

By the way, I really looked into this and even worked out that his profile photo was taken on July 6th 2011. I’ve double checked the geolocation and that is UoT courtyard and the graduating girls are all from the OISE programme (future teachers).

One last step?

To be clear about how popular this account is, it’s followed by @ozgurmumcu, @ekonomikanaliz, @Metin4020, a lot of big, big accounts with some serious reach.

And until Dr Sinan responds, there is surely doubt that they’re even a real person. That is mad to me...