As missile strikes and military posturing escalate tensions between India and Pakistan, New Delhi is now confronting a flurry of misinformation and fabricated content, much of it proliferating on social media platforms.
Ironically, this digital disinformation storm mirrors the very tactics India itself has often been accused of deploying against neighbours — notably Bangladesh.
Following India’s pre-dawn “Operation Sindoor” that struck nine establishments sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, a coordinated campaign of false claims erupted online.
Pakistani news outlets and social media influencers claimed retaliatory strikes on Indian military bases, including the Srinagar Airbase and a Brigade HQ — all of which have since been debunked by independent fact-checkers and India’s own Press Information Bureau (PIB).
The PIB clarified that widely circulated images and videos were either outdated or unrelated, including one falsely showing a downed Indian MiG-29 fighter jet, which in reality had crashed in Barmer, Rajasthan, in 2024.
“Rely only on official Government of India sources for authentic information,” the Indian PIB stated.
But this episode also casts a long shadow over India’s own recent record.
Since August 5, when Sheikh Hasina fled the country and took shelter in India, Indian media have circulated several hundred pieces of misinformation and disinformation about Bangladesh and the interim government, according to government and private fact-checkers including CA Press Wing Facts and RumorScanner.
In 2021 and 2022, several Indian media houses and social media influencers were also found disseminating doctored videos and sensationalist reports regarding internal turmoil in Bangladesh — including the anti-Modi protests and communal incidents.
