Operation Social Media: The India-Pakistan War Extended Beyond National Boundaries

India and Pakistan launched a new sort of war using digital deception and disinformation following a terror incident in Kashmir.  False allegations, edited films, and viral lies intended to exacerbate emotions and misrepresent the truth proliferated on social media as India targeted terrorists.  This exposé shows how, in the era of hybrid conflict, India’s cyber defenses, media credibility, and strategic clarity were put to the test as “Operation Social Media” turned into a battlefield of psychological warfare and digital deception.

Some Viral Posts:

• “Indian forces wave the white flag!”
• “Karachi captured!”
• “Pakistan Army Chief arrested!”

It was all untrue. It all went viral.

A parallel conflict took place in the limitless realm of online, rather than on land or in the air, when India and Pakistan teetered on the brink of open combat in May after a horrific terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed the lives of 26 civilians.

 

This was a planned campaign of perception warfare, driven by a barrage of false information and psychological operations intended to mislead, divert, and destabilize. It was not just a war of missiles and drones.

In this way, “Operation Social Media” developed—an unseen front that revealed the profound impact that misinformation could have on contemporary conflicts—and how India attempted to preserve both operational focus and digital cleanliness in the face of a highly skilled hybrid enemy.

When the Noise of Bots Surpasses Explosives’ Boom

A terror strike at a well-known tourist destination in Kashmir sparked the turmoil.  On May 7, New Delhi launched Operation Sindoor, a series of targeted attacks on militant infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the attack bore the fingerprints of terror groups based in Pakistan.

 

Unverified claims started flooding social media almost immediately.  Reports from The Guardian and The Washington Post claim that X (previously Twitter) turned into a hive of fictitious battles, early victory laps, and phony victories.

Some of the most widely circulated, yet wholly false, stories were:

• Lahore and Karachi were taken by Indian jets.
• A purported military coup and the arrest of Pakistan’s army chief.
• India’s electrical infrastructure was rendered inoperable by a cyberattack from Pakistan.
• India is either attacking Afghanistan or giving up on important fronts.

During the India-Pakistan stalemate, a parallel narrative war emerged on social media as a result of the proliferation of doctored videos, recycled battle clips, and even footage from video games like Arma 3.  A combination of official handles, anonymous accounts, and even journalists acting on dubious inputs helped spread these tweets.

According to independent internet watchdog NetBlocks, untraceable bot accounts were responsible for 20% of these viral fraudulent messages, while IP addresses associated with Pakistan accounted for 65% of them.

The Centre for the Study of Organized Hate, a non-profit think group with headquarters in Washington, claims that “X emerged as the primary hub for both misinformation and disinformation.”  The think tank examined 437 of these posts and discovered that 179, or over 41%, came from verified accounts, which are frequently seen as reliable since they have been blue-checked.  These included posts from media figures, legislators, influencers, and former military personnel.

 

The research pointed out that the legitimacy given to these lies by well-known sources was very concerning.  Only 73 postings, or 17% of the total, were detected by X’s Community Notes, the platform’s crowdsourced fact-checking tool, despite the extent of this misinformation.  The thinking group contended that this indicated a significant breach in content control during a period of elevated geopolitical stress.

The research tank’s head, Raqib Hameed Naik, called the information war “a global trend in hybrid warfare.”  Joyojeet Pal of the University of Michigan stated, “This was not your typical nationalist chest-thumping.”  “This could have driven two neighbors with nuclear weapons to the verge of war.”

Pakistan’s Playbook

Operation Sindoor wasn’t the start of the social media effort; it was already in motion.  India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting declared on April 25, just days before the Indian Air Force strike, that 16 YouTube channels and many Instagram profiles would be banned for disseminating “provocative and communally sensitive content.”

 

With a total audience of nearly 680 million, ten of these were situated in India and six in Pakistan.

When Pakistan dropped its one-year ban on X during the height of the crisis, it was a significant turning point.  The purpose of this intentional and purposeful action was to allow Islamabad to “participate in the narrative war,” according to minutes from a meeting of a Pakistani Senate committee.

According to NetBlocks, Pakistani authorities and affiliated influencers had a large window to flood the platform with deceptive and frequently offensive postings as access to X was restored in Pakistan just as tensions with India increased.

Following the operation, India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check division intervened to refute dozens of widely circulated claims as false material proliferated on social media.  These comprised:

• Videos of the 2020 explosion in Lebanon are being circulated as missile strikes on Indian towns.
• Jalandhar fires captured on a drone are presented as assaults.
• A video game that exaggerates the military achievements of Pakistan.
• Repurposed photos from other war zones were presented as Indian casualties.

When taken as a whole, these instances provide insight into the scope, organization, and purpose of the disinformation effort, which aims to mislead the people and skew how the world views India’s political and military posture.

Inside Pakistan’s Covert Spy Ring

Indian intelligence discovered a Pakistan-backed scheme to recruit social media influencers as spies in a related espionage investigation.  In Lahore, Jaiyana Travels and Tourism is operated by Naushaba Shahzad Masood, sometimes referred to as “Madam N.”  She was concentrating on Hindu and Sikh YouTubers like Jyoti Malhotra and Jasbir Singh while establishing a network of 500 spies within India.

 

Naushaba expedited visas through direct contacts at the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi, securing travel for over 3,000 Indians and 1,500 foreigners to Pakistan in six months.  Additionally, she oversaw Hindu and Sikh pilgrimage excursions for the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), charging exorbitant fees that financed propaganda for ISI.

Two Pakistani bank accounts connected to transactions from India and Naushaba’s phone number discovered on the equipment of detained spies are examples of financial trails.  Agents in Delhi and other major Indian cities are used by her network to attract new members.

Open-Source Intelligence: Boon or Bane?

Additionally, the circumstance brought to light the dual nature of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT).  OSINT’s decentralized methodology was initially intended to empower citizens through social media monitoring, open data, and satellite imagery, but it ended up being a weapon for mass manipulation.

According to an investigation by ET, “anyone with an internet connection could now pose as an OSINT expert.”  Particularly when shared by influencers and news institutions under pressure for real-time material, the risk is that viral disinformation may be misrepresented as expert opinions.

Newsrooms Under Fire

The flood of false information also fooled some Indian news outlets.

In one instance, a journalist allegedly received a WhatsApp message stating that Pakistan’s army chief had been jailed, purportedly from a public broadcaster, according to The Washington Post.  This lie became prime-time “breaking news” in a matter of minutes.

Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao cautioned that the absence of official government briefings created a void that was frequently occupied by conjecture, characterizing the climate as one of “hypernationalism” and “parallel reality” in an interview with The Post.

However, not everybody was duped.

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting established a round-the-clock monitoring center and India’s Press Information Bureau to combat false information in real time.  Broadcasters who violated verification standards were warned, social media handles were reported, and fact-checks were conducted.

Cyber Frontline: just 150 breaches out of 1.5 million attacks

The real-time cyber danger was just as serious as the bogus statements that were circulating on social media.  Seven Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups with ties to Pakistan launched more than 1.5 million cyberattacks against Indian infrastructure, according to Maharashtra Cyber.

In addition to the neighboring countries, Bangladesh and the Middle East were also the sources of the torrent of cyberattacks.

 

In the days leading up to the crisis, pro-Pakistan hacker collectives like Team Insane PK, Pakistan Cyber Force, and APT 36 (also called Transparent Tribe) began a coordinated series of cyberattacks.

To spread fear and undermine public confidence in India’s digital infrastructure, they used a variety of tactics, such as malware campaigns, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, GPS spoofing attempts, and website defacements.

Over 1.5 million incursion attempts were made against India during this time, according to officials with knowledge of the situation.  However, according to PTI, only 150 attacks—a negligible portion—were successful.

Crucially, it was determined that there was no evidence that the hackers had gained access to the Election Commission’s websites or Mumbai’s airport systems.  Speaking to reporters, a top Maharashtra Cyber official refuted allegations that hackers had targeted the Election Commission website, compromised aviation and municipal systems, and stolen data from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

“The investigation found that although they did not completely halt, cyberattacks on Indian government websites declined after India-Pakistan hostilities ended.  Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco, and other Middle Eastern nations are still launching these attacks,” he claimed.

According to the Indian government’s confidential cyber threat assessment, the “Road of Sindoor,” these attacks were a component of a well-planned hybrid warfare strategy that combined psychological and digital warfare.

India’s response

The Indian military exhibited strategic clarity and disciplined silence during the internet information war.  Though brief, official statements were focused.  Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri emphasized during a press conference that India did not target civilian installations and that Operation Sindoor was exclusively focused on destroying terrorist infrastructure.

 

Behind the scenes, fact-checking teams were increased, India’s cyber defense grid was activated, and social media guidelines for military updates were strengthened.  The administration also urged people to always trust official sources and stay away from unconfirmed information.

AI fact-checkers

Social media users increasingly resorted to AI chatbots for verification as the deluge of misleading information grew, only to discover more misunderstandings and lies.  During the crisis, platforms like Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and xAI’s Grok were popular go-to resources for real-time fact-checking.

On Elon Musk’s platform X, the request, “Hey @Grok, is this true?” became viral, indicating the spike in people looking for fast debunkings.  But these AI helpers frequently spread false information themselves.

During the battle, Grok misinterpreted outdated video footage from Sudan’s Khartoum airport as missile strikes on Pakistan’s Nur Khan airbase, drawing fresh criticism for incorporating far-right conspiracy ideas into irrelevant responses.  Similarly, irrelevant fire imagery from Nepal was mistakenly interpreted as military retaliation from Pakistan.

The increasing use of Grok as a fact-checker coincides with X and other large digital companies reducing their funding in human fact-checkers, McKenzie Sadeghi of the misinformation watchdog NewsGuard cautioned.  AI chatbots are not trustworthy providers of news and information, especially when it comes to breaking news, as our study has consistently shown.

AI chatbots were “generally bad at declining to answer questions they couldn’t answer accurately, offering incorrect or speculative answers instead,” according to research by Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism.  For example, when Google’s Gemini was questioned by AFP fact-checkers in Uruguay on an AI-generated image of a lady, it verified the image’s authenticity but made up information about the woman’s location and identity.

The first casualty is truth, but it is not the final word.

The complicated terrain of contemporary conflict, where victory is determined not only by territory conquered but also by narrative control, is exposed by the digital front of the India-Pakistan impasse.

Although subtle, India’s response was multi-layered, systematic, and mostly successful in spite of the deluge of lies.  The next major conflict will undoubtedly be waged not only with missiles but also with memes, metadata, and disinformation as the distinction between social media warfare and statecraft becomes increasingly hazy.

About The Author:

Yogesh Naager is a content marketer who specializes in the cybersecurity and B2B space.  Besides writing for the News4Hackers blogs, he also writes for brands including Craw Security, Bytecode Security, and NASSCOM.

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