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Arab Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab Times
Fake War: How Social Media Is Fueling The India-Pakistan Crisis
KUWAIT CITY, May 9: As fresh military tensions unfold between India and Pakistan following cross-border strikes in Kashmir, a parallel crisis has erupted online — the unchecked spread of misinformation, doctored videos, and jingoistic propaganda. Since the Indian airstrikes on 6 May, social media platforms have been flooded with dramatic but false visuals claiming to show fighter jets being shot down, military bases in flames, and retaliatory attacks. BBC Verify and independent fact-checkers have debunked dozens of such clips, many of which turned out to be either recycled footage or fabricated content. Among the most striking examples was a video that amassed over 3 million views, allegedly showing Pakistan's military hitting an Indian army base. It was a video of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza from 2023. Another clip claiming to show Pakistani retaliation turned out to be footage of the 2020 Beirut blast. Images of past Indian Air Force crashes from 2021 and 2024 were passed off as new footage. Photos taken from the video game Battlefield 3 were used to depict drone strikes. Even mainstream media in both countries have failed to adequately verify what they broadcast or report, heightening public confusion. In the fog of war, digital propaganda is not a side story — it is shaping perception, policy, and public sentiment. With the truth under siege, media literacy and fact-based journalism are more urgent than ever. False Narratives from Pakistan One of the most widely circulated pieces of disinformation emerged from Pakistan, where several prominent news portals and social media influencers shared visuals claiming that Indian Sukhoi fighter jets had been shot down over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. However, India's Press Information Bureau (PIB) promptly debunked the claim, noting that the images being used were actually from a 2014 crash in Maharashtra, unrelated to the current conflict. Similarly, Pakistani media outlets have carried reports alleging heavy civilian casualties from Indian airstrikes. Indian officials, however, have categorically denied targeting civilian areas, asserting that the strikes were aimed exclusively at militant infrastructure. Exaggerations and False Alarms in Indian Media Indian mainstream media, too, have contributed to the fog of misinformation. News reports and viral social media posts suggested that Pakistan had launched coordinated drone and missile attacks on Indian border cities such as Jammu and Pathankot. While air-raid sirens and temporary lockdowns did occur in some northern regions, Pakistan has denied initiating any such strikes, accusing New Delhi of inflating the threat for strategic gain. In another instance, Indian media reported that Indian forces had neutralized Pakistan's air defense systems near Lahore — a claim promptly denied by Islamabad, which insisted that its defenses remain intact and operational. Amid the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan following the events of May 6, 2025, a surge of misinformation has permeated social media platforms, complicating the public's understanding of the conflict. In response, Alt News, an Indian fact-checking organization, has intensified its efforts to debunk false narratives and provide accurate information to the public. Alt News has identified and debunked numerous instances of recycled and misleading content circulating online from both countries and even identified fake social media accounts that are promoting disinformation. Public Confusion and Official Denials The misinformation hasn't been limited to military claims. Viral WhatsApp forwards and online posts warned of an impending ATM shutdown across India for '2-3 days,' allegedly in response to wartime logistics. The Indian government quickly stepped in to dismiss the claim as baseless, urging the public not to fall for fear-mongering and assuring that banking operations were functioning normally. Both New Delhi and Islamabad have since issued advisories urging the public to rely on official channels for updates and to refrain from sharing unverified content. A Growing Digital Battlefield Analysts warn that this surge in misinformation not only exacerbates public panic but also makes crisis management more difficult for both governments. 'What we are seeing is a classic case of information warfare,' said a senior cybersecurity analyst at Delhi's Observer Research Foundation. 'It's designed to sow confusion, provoke emotional reactions, and shape perceptions before facts can emerge.'
Saudi Gazette
08-05-2025
- Saudi Gazette
Misleading posts obtaining millions of views on X
NEW DELHI — India's strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir have unleashed a wave of misinformation online, with unrelated videos purporting to be from the strikes gaining millions of views. Dramatic clips debunked by BBC Verify have claimed to show attacks on an Indian army base and an Indian fighter jet shot down in Pakistan. One video, which had more than 400,000 views on X at the time of writing, claiming to show an explosion caused by a Pakistani response was actually from the 2020 Beirut Port explosion in Lebanon. An expert told BBC Verify that in moments of heightened tension or dramatic events, misinformation is more likely to spread and fuel distrust and hostility. "It's very common to see recycled footage during any significant event, not just conflict," Eliot Higgins, the founder of the Bellingcat investigations website, said. "Algorithmic engagement rewards people who post engaging content, not truthful content, and footage of conflict and disasters is particularly engaging, no matter the truth behind it." One of the most viral clips, which gained over 3 million views on X in a matter of hours, claimed to show blasts caused by the Indian strikes on Pakistan-administered Kashmir. A search for screengrabs from the video on Google found the footage actually showed Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip on 13 October 2023. While much of the debunked footage has purported to show the immediate aftermath of the Indian strikes, some clips analyzed by BBC Verify appeared to be trying to portray the Pakistani response as being more severe than it actually was. One video, which has racked up almost 600,000 views on X, claimed to show that the "Pakistan army blew up the Indian Brigade headquarters". The clip, which shows blasts in the darkness, is actually from an unrelated video circulating on YouTube as early as last month. Elsewhere, one set of photos purported to show an operation carried out by the Pakistan Air Force targeting "Indian forward air bases in the early hours of 6 May 2025". The images — which appeared to be captured by a drone — were actually screengrabs taken from the video game Battlefield 3. The Pakistani military says it destroyed five jets on Wednesday morning local time. That announcement has led to some users sharing unrelated clips which they claimed showed the wreckage of Indian fighter jets. Some of these videos have obtained millions of views. But two widely shared images actually showed previous Indian air force jet crashes — one from an incident in Rajasthan in 2024 and another in the Punjab state in 2021. Both crashes were widely reported. Prof Indrajit Roy of York University said that the images "are being generated with a view to get support for the military in Pakistan". One clip circulated by the Pakistani military itself was later withdrawn by news agencies after it turned out to be from an unrelated event. "We have jingoists on both sides of the border, and they have a huge platform on Twitter (X). You can see how fake news, as well as some real news, gets amplified, distorted and presented in ways designed to generate hostility, animosity and hatred for the other side." The conflict in Kashmir has long attracted a high degree of misinformation online. In the aftermath of the deadly militant attack on Indian tourists in Pahalgam last month, AI images circulated — with some seeking to dramatise actual scenes from the attack. Vedika Bahl, a journalist with France 24, said the Pahalgam attacks had prompted a sharp "uptake in misinformation from both sides surrounding the conflict". "Lots of this misinformation begins on X," she said. "Eventually this trickles down over time from X to WhatsApp which is the communication tool which is most used in South Asian communities." — BBC
