As missiles roar across border, fake news flies thick and fast on social media

Since the launch of Operation Sindoor by the Indian armed forces in the early hours of May 7, social media has been flooded with misinformation and disinformation.

Over the past two days, heightened nationalistic sentiments and the urge to be a part of the spectacle have led not just propaganda channels but also news organisations and individual journalists on both sides of the border to disseminate “fake news”.

Much of this has played out on X, where videos and photos completely unrelated to the operation were tweeted, liked and shared, blurring the boundaries between truth and fiction.

“It is quite clear that none of the countries can afford a war, but we are closer to a war-like situation than we were during Uri or Pulwama. Because in both cases, military targets were attacked. This is the first time a civilian target has been attacked. So, because we are closer to a war-like situation and any war-like situation includes information warfare, that is happening and it is expected,” Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha told The Federal.

Crashed planes and Pakistani handles

According to experts and fact-checkers, the majority of misinformation on May 7 was from Pakistani handles — verified and unverified — who were keen to prove that Pakistan had given a befitting response to India.

These included Pakistani news outlets ARY News and Pakistan Observer, which ran images of crashed planes and claimed the Pakistan Air Force had shot down Indian Air Force jets. While ARY News ran two such photos as “exclusive”, the latter claimed five Indian jets had been shot down. Alt News busted these claims and said the photos were old and unrelated.

Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who has a verified blue tick account, was also involved in spreading multiple pieces of misinformation. He was called out by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.

“Dog fight between PAF and IAF resulted in the defeat of India. Pakistan Air Force destroyed one Indian fighter jet in Akhnoor area one near Bathinda and one Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) near LoC close to Pulwama. India targeted civilians but Pakistan attacked military targets,” he tweeted with a photo that turned out to be from a MiG-21 Bison crash in Punjab from 2021.

Need to set a narrative

Hamid also retweeted a post from Tejasswi Prakash — a Pakistani handle pretending to be a Congress supporter who falsely claimed that Pakistan had shot down one Rafale and one Su-30 near Akhnoor and destroyed “our brigade HQ”. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey also reposted this, attacking the Congress.

Prakash’s was one of the eight Pakistani propaganda accounts shared by Zubair masquerading as those from the Indian armed forces. As of May 8 evening, both Prakash and Mir’s X accounts had been “withheld in response to a legal demand”. It is to be noted that X was banned in Pakistan until May 7.

“It’s a dynamic situation. Yesterday’s trend was Pakistan trying to show through proxy channels that it has responded to India. Since they wanted to show their own people that they had taught India a lesson, their response was largely misinformation. For the first time, I think, we are dealing with more misinformation emanating from Pakistan than from India. Usually, it is more from the Indian side,” said Sinha.

“Who’s putting out the misinformation depends on who feels the need to set a narrative. So, for example, post-Balakot, there was not a single dead body, no funeral. We desperately had to show that it was a successful strike. So then, all kinds of things were shown. Then it was India’s need to set a narrative,” he said.

Gaza, Texas images shared by Right wing

By the night of May 7, the misinformation had started from the Indian side. Shaurya Mishra, a verified blue tick handle, who’s written “BJP” in his profile description, shared a video from a wildfire in Texas in March 2024, as a video of a supposed attack on Sialkot by the Indian side. Clips from gaming videos were also being passed off as those of Pakistani jets being shot down by Indian forces.

Two old images from Gaza clicked by AFP journalists in 2021 after Israeli airstrikes were also carried by propaganda channels. One of these was The Jaipur Dialogues — a well-known Right-wing propaganda handle with expertise in spreading misinformation — which shared it with the caption “Sunrise in Sialkot” at 11.35 pm.

Another Right-wing handle, Janardan Mishra, shared a video with people running helter-skelter, claiming it to be from Operation Sindoor. On fact-checking by Alt News, it turned out to be from Gaza. However, it has still not been pulled down and has 888k views and 9.9k likes.

Media houses share Gaza footage

The worst of it came from the media, however. ABP, Zee News, and Aaj Tak aired footage from the 2023 Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as though from the current operation, according to Alt News. The videos allegedly continue to be on their social media handles.

Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul from TV9 network tweeted: “#BREAKING: Pakistan Army confirms attack by India. India has launched an attack on Pakistan. Missiles fired at Kotli, Muzaffarabad, and Bahawalpur — confirmed by DG ISPR to Pakistani journalists. India goes after terror state Pakistan.” Along with this, he attached a video.

As of May 8 evening, X had flagged the post saying, “This media is presented out of context.” The Readers’ context said: “Although the attack by India is true, this particular video is a old video of Gaza (sic).” It has still not been pulled down.

In a seemingly contradictory move, late on May 7 night, Kaul first posted a video of sirens going off in Sialkot at 11.40 pm. Then he posted: “Heavy Air activity being reported along the LoC and IB between India and Pakistan in J&K and Punjab” at 11:59 PM. Thereafter, he posted: “Midnight Update: No confirmation of any attacks or missiles launched anywhere yet. Don’t believe any rumours.”

Shelling victim becomes “terrorist”

On May 8, PIB put out an alert against “Pakistan sponsored propaganda”. “It's crucial to scrutinize every piece of information carefully. If you encounter dubious content, especially concerning the Indian Armed Forces or any info related to ongoing situation, report it to #PIBFactCheck,” it said.

But with the situation escalating, misinformation has now reached absurd proportions. On May 8, Indian news channels Zee News, Republic Bharat and News18 ran a photo of a “terrorist” who turned out to be a victim of the shelling in Poonch, as per Zubair.

“This is shameful by Indian News Channels. Qari Mohammad Iqbal from poonch, India was killed yesterday in shelling from Pakistan is being portrayed as a ‘terrorist’ in multiple national Indian news channels (sic),” he posted on X. His family is allegedly planning to take action.

Fertile ground for fake news

With no resolution in sight, social media is becoming an increasingly fertile ground for misinformation and fake news.

To deal with this, Prateek Waghmare, former director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, has some advice. “In conflict, what has helped me is treating everyone as an ‘unreliable narrator’ [even, esp. people/views I am likely to agree with because that’s where my biases will kick in]. Recognise that most things you see are either an information op, or downstream from one. Look for consensus to emerge. This is not foolproof, and goes against our sense-making instincts in emergent situations,” he posted on X.