The new battlefield: On social media, war plays out through fake news
Early Sunday, US pilots carried out airstrikes on two underground uranium enrichment sites in Iran using 30,000-pound bombs. According to US officials, this move 'devastated the Iranian nuclear programme.'
False rumours
Soon after the unprecedented attack, rumours of Indian airspace involvement began circulating. Social media reports suggested that Indian airspace had been used by the US to carry out the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Social media was filled with unverified posts making this claim.
But India's central government quickly stepped in to deny the claims. In an official statement, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said, 'Several social media accounts have claimed that Indian airspace was used by the United States to launch aircraft against Iran during Operation Midnight Hammer. This claim is FAKE.'
This incident is not something new, but yet another example of
fake news
circulating during moments of high tension. In fact, this is in continuation of the pattern India had already seen in May during
Operation Sindoor
.
Operation Sindoor
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Back in May, after a deadly terror attack in Pahalgam killed 26 civilians, India and Pakistan came dangerously close to open conflict. But while tensions rose on the ground, a parallel battle played out in cyberspace.
Earlier this month, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan revealed that around 15% of the operational time during Operation Sindoor had been spent tackling fake news and misleading content online, as reported by the Times of India.
Right after the attack, a
flood of false claims
began to appear on social media. Some of the most widely shared fake stories included:
A supposed fidayeen attack (suicide bombing) on Indian Army forces in the Rajouri region of Jammu and Kashmir.
A video showing a massive rocket attack from Pakistan, which was originally a clip from a video game and has been doing the rounds for the past three years.
Posts claiming that airports across India had been shut. In reality, only a few airports had temporarily suspended civil flights. The PIB shared a list of affected airports to clear the confusion.
A viral WhatsApp message claimed that ATMs would be shut for two to three days due to a cyberattack from Pakistan, which PIB clarified as fake.
In addition, fake X (formerly Twitter) accounts pretending to be Wing Commander Vyomika Singh and Colonel Sofiya Qureshi gained huge followings, amassing 28.4k and 68k followers, respectively.
According to independent watchdog NetBlocks, around
65% of these false posts
came from IP addresses traced back to Pakistan, with another 20% linked to unidentified bot accounts.
All of this shows how modern conflicts are no longer limited to the battlefield. It has entered cyberspace, attacking the most vulnerable and innocent with misinformation. Narratives now decide the victory, unlike before and gaining control over it seems to be the aim.
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