As tensions escalate between India and Pakistan, sections of social media have committed themselves to the pursuit of ‘psy ops’ against Pakistan, claiming to serve a purpose in the machinery of war as part of information warfare.
In information warfare, perception is the battlefield. If the news damages Pakistan — true or false — amplify it. Post it. Share it. Make it viral. Let panic spread across the border.
— Ujjwal Maheshwari (@ujjwalrd) May 8, 2025
If the news harms India — even if true — bury it. Suppress it. Disarm it before it spreads.… pic.twitter.com/cMcQyjIVfQ
The result has been a deluge of misinformation and disinformation on multiple platforms, with fact-checking institutions like Alt News, Boom Live and the government’s Press Information Bureau working overtime to provide fact-checks.
Now, information warfare has long been a part of conversations around war. Research in 2020 by Air Marshal Anil Chopra defined psychological warfare as the “emotional aspect of communication, where information involving psychological components is delivered to a target audience to bring a shift in its emotions and outlook”. These are targeted campaigns directed at an enemy during war.
But this isn’t what we’re seeing on social media today, said cybersecurity analyst Nandakishore Harikumar, who called it “misinformation and propaganda” instead.
“Information warfare is important, it is part of modern warfare technique,” said Harikumar, the founder of Technisanct. “But it has to have coordinated efforts. Right now this is more of engagement farming.”
Like this post, for instance, which insists that if news “damages Pakistan – true or false – I will amplify it”. Another account vowed to share such information “again and again”.
Much of this so-called ‘warfare’ is being carried out by influencers who have wide reach on social media. Sahiba Bali, who has over 720,000 followers on Instagram, posted that this is “art of war”.
“People questioning the legitimacy of news and complaining that every news channel and every digital platform is giving us wrong and different information, let me please remind you that this art of war, this is a psychological and strategic method of warfare where you give inaccurate and different non-standarised information…so to confuse the people, especially the enemy,” she said.
Such posts gain legitimacy with users claiming to have high-profile sources for their information. One blue-tick user said he “spoke to a high-ranking active army officer” on why the Indian media “acted like a mad man last night”. This officer allegedly told him, “This is called information warfare. And it’s officially taught to us as part of tactics.”
Many of these users are critical of attempts to fact-check, insisting that such people have no clue what ‘information warfare’ means. One likened such attempts to the behaviour of “traitors”. Another, with 19,000 followers on X, said some Indians were “busy fact checking things which are favourable to India”. A third account, with over 270,000 followers on X, praised misinformation since it “will help our defense forces a lot”.
But according to Harikumar, information warfare “has a different set of standards”.
“It will be well-propagated, it will be well-articulated. Like we have seen the instances in Russia-Ukraine war where there is manufacturing of evidence to prove and substantiate this kind of misinformation. But this is not what we see in this case,” he said.
Harikumar added that this misinformation as part of a psy ops campaign is particularly difficult to counter when it’s spread by an account that has, in the past, been known to post “good, credible information”. “They are made to believe that it’s genuine, and misinformation becomes real information,” he said.
Pratik Sinha, the cofounder of Alt News, flagged this issue in a post on X. He characterised it as “delusion max”.
The brilliant minds of the Indian right-wing think that information warfare is carried out by putting out disinformation that can be debunked by a child, then admitting that it is their express agenda, and that is apparently going to confuse the other warring country. Delusion… pic.twitter.com/jw2nxkTUUl
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) May 9, 2025
“I might not know what comes under information warfare, but I am fairly aware what doesn’t,” Sinha told Newslaundry. “You can’t claim Karachi has been destroyed whereas people in Karachi are sleeping peacefully. That is just stupidity, not warfare.”
He added, “The distrust in TV media is growing, but what will people watch when they switch on the TV? If someone is newly introduced to TV news channels, they will see whatever comes to them.”
Harikumar said, “When misinformation comes along with nationalism, it’s going to have a huge impact on the public. It will cover up a lot of sensible information when say for example an outrage war is going to happen, how will be believe and what will be believe? All of this can lead to chaos. In this kind of scenario, it’s always good to rely on government handles, sources and pressers.”
And contradicting these blue-tick crusaders is the Indian government. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting yesterday urged the public to be “wary of disinformation being spread on social media”.
In sensitive times like these, it is necessary to be wary of disinformation being spread on social media.
— Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (@MIB_India) May 9, 2025
Always verify any piece of news, image, or video before you forward.
If you come across suspicious or misleading content, report it to @PIBFactCheck #FactCheck… pic.twitter.com/UBNCdvy5gB
The Indian government had also issued an advisory for all media platforms, urging them to “exercise utmost responsibility and adhere strictly to existing laws and regulations while reporting on matters concerning defence and other security-related operations”.
And earlier today, the government advised media channels to refrain from using the sound of air raid sirens in their programmes since that is “likely to reduce the sensitivity of civilians” towards such sounds, which could be a problem during actual air raids.
Newslaundry reached out to retired army officers to ask how they would define information warfare.
Lieutenant General Sanjeev Kanal (retired) explained that information warfare is a part of “multi-domain operations” and is a “regular practice to manage perceptions”. And that sections of the TV media “putting out news without verifying is not part of information warfare”.
“In information warfare, a plan is followed. The country decides a theme or themes in accordance with a narrative which is to be pushed or countered, but there is a well thought out methodology of execution,” he said. “There is a vast difference in the government's information warfare efforts and the other social media or TV news media’s spreading of misinformation.”
Brigadier Kuldip Singh (retired), the former principal director of the National Security Council Secretariat and ex-director (intelligence coordination) of India’s Defence Intelligence Agency, told Newslaundry that propaganda and, now, information warfare are a “crucial and essential part of any conflict”.
“This is because ‘wars are started by politicians, fought by soldiers – but sustained by public opinion’. Therefore, this public opinion is targeted by both sides – the own side tries to sustain morale and support, and the adversary tries to break it by disseminating defeatist ‘news’,” he explained. “In the earlier era, when there was no internet or means of accessing information quickly, nations and their propagandists could tell outrageous lies about the progress of a war, and get away with it for at least a few days. But now, the ability to source imagery and news from a large number of domestic and international media outlets, social media, etc, means that people can investigate, verify and fact-check the purveyed information with different tools.”
This means that information warfare and propaganda must evolve, Brigadier Singh said. And to be “credible in present times, it should combine elements of truth or facts or factual narratives, with bits of misinformation layered in between”.
“Besides, for information operations to be credible, the themes must be decided at the highest level and circulated suitably by all concerned, so that fact-checking doesn’t give rise to serious dichotomies. In absence of such efforts, the so-called news emanating from many media channels are just discoverable lies,” he said.
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