Whether or not the television broadcast of revolutions, the war will always be broadcast. Even if there is no real footage, video game clips, AI videos or any old video can thrill the audience. Fake content on TV and social media platforms can be effective for their TRP and agenda. In a four -day fight between India and Pakistan, the media broadcast exaggerated news so on both sides, which raised questions on its role.
For example, in response to a terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April, India carried out targeted airstrikes at some places in Pakistan and Pakistani occupied Kashmir (PoK) on the intervening night of 6-7 May, where terrorist training centers are said to be. Immediately after the news of India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, there was a flood of videos on social media platforms like X, Facebook and Instagram, claiming that Pakistan killed five Indian aircraft.
CNN asked Pakistan Defense Minister Khwaja Asif to evidence for the claim of killing five Indian aircraft, he said, “All is on social media. Not us, but on Indian social media.” An apex military officer refer to social media video, this information is a new neei in the war, in which the line of difference between the fact or fake is very blurred. However, after the ceasefire, Indian Air Force DGMO A.K. Bharti said this much that all our pilots are safe and disadvantage is part of the fight.
Media in Pakistan continued to beat the ‘story of success’ through fake videos. ARVI News, anchor of Jio TV, etc. were screaming that the Pahalgam terror attack is India’s own act to discredit Pakistan. Of course, the Government of Pakistan and the army started this Narrative. See some headlines of ARVI, ‘JF-17 Thunder is flying to destroy India’s S-400 defense system’, ‘India’s cowardly attack, Pakistan’s retaliation is the most in the world’ and ‘S-400 stalled, Rafael fell, direct evidence of India’s defeat’ etc.
Some glimpses of coverage in media
Now, look at the Dhamaal on the TV news channels of India. In the background, the anchors raised loud slogans amidst the sound of siren and hooter. On the screen, the views of flying and staining of the aircraft were shown through computer generated images and animations. Such a breaking news was run, which caused the people to be reprehensive. They were telling how Pakistan is on the verge of disintegration.
Zee TV anchor announced loudly, “Pakistan’s capital Islamabad captured,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif hid in the bunker. ” Along with G, NKTV in Guwahati and daily time also made the same. According to Kolkata -based ABP Ananda, “Rebellion in the Pakistani Army,” Army Hukmeran General Asim Munir was removed and arrested “. Republic and ABP’s braking news, ‘Indian Navy aircraft carrier INS Vikrant together destroyed Pakistan’s Karachi port.’ Assamese news channel News Live reported that 12 cities of Pakistan ruined in Indian attacks. ABP said that Balochistan, a few steps away from independence from Pakistan, a strong attack on the Baloch rebel hideout in Quetta. According to India TV and ET Now, India killed an F-16 Pakistani jet and caught its pilot.
The coverage was so strong or whatever the reason that Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also posted on X about India’s attack on Karachi. However, he later removed it.
But the next day, the balanced press briefing of the army brought out the wind of these wonders. A detailed information of the events of the night of 8-9 May was given and everything proved to be fake. The briefing reported that the Pakistani army ‘carried out drone attacks’ and heavy shelling on the Line of Control, which was “given a suitable response and many drones were killed.” He said that a UAV equipped with Pakistan’s weapon was killed before targeting Bathinda military hideout. According to briefing, around 300 to 400 drone infiltrations were attempted from Leh to Sir Creek, which aims to take intelligence of India’s air defense systems. Then, in response to the attack, armed drones were launched at four air locations in Pakistan. A drone managed to destroy their anti -radar system. “But,” Indian armed forces responded proportional and responsibly. “
Well, fake news and misinterpretation spreads much faster and their refutation in most of the case does not end the eradication and misleading attitude. In the era of live coverage, social media and artificial intelligence, the speed of rumors and signs can be faster than the speed of light and can present such a distorted picture that does not disappear for a long time.
Actually, information war does not only mean spreading fake news, but also has to create a narrator with careful prepared publicity. As the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said at the Tehran conference on November 30, 1943, “The truth, the truth, is so precious that he should always stay with the bodyguards of lies.” Every party tries to hide sensitive information in war. It is part of strategic and diplomatic strategy. But every Aira-Gaira becomes a strategic expert and starts filling up the TV anchor, then the disadvantage is done.
In addition, it is also risky to criticize at the time of fighting. Broadly, all the opposition parties avoided criticism of the government during the fight. But the troll army was seen fighting a war on social media as has never been seen before. Senior journalist Vaishna Roy objected to the name of Operation Sindoor, she considers her patriarchal. He faced cruel trolling on social media to question the armed forces. Many Hindu right -wing elements threatened secular and liberal voices that if they tried to question the government or the army, action would be taken against them.
A Facebook page called Indian Army Fans wrote, “You should not have any friends against Operation Sindoor.” Many high-nationalists shared government emails on social media platforms, where the ‘anti-national’ post could be reported. Allegedly, the right-wing propaganda handle of more than 4.5 lakh ‘followers’, Jaipur dialogues, fixed the rules on 9 May. According to him, “Dharna is the battlefield in the information war.” If the news harms Pakistan- whether it is true or false- then present it exaggerated. Post it. Share it. Make it viral. Let the panic spread across the border. If the news harms India- even if it is true- then bury it. Press it. Make it meaningless before spreading. “It was cleaned,” Every post is a bullet. Never shoot your country. ”
However, the government has repeatedly warned the media and the general public to not get under the guise of misinformation and rely on the government’s briefing. But Abhijeet Iyer-Mitra, a Hindutva preacher, defended the right to spread wrong information. Who should not consider this right, when it gave this right. On May 8, Iyer-Mitra posted a “tweet” to those who posted positively to those by posting positive news in Pakistan in Pakistan, Pakistan’s fleeing aircraft, pilot caught, F-16/J-17 and spreading fake news of the attack on Karachi/Lahore. “You don’t know how useful you were.” You have become the electronic war organ of the motherland. Anyone who calls you ‘fake news’ or’ misinformation ‘is the fifth pillar of Pakistan.’
The condition is that the foreign Savich Vikram Misri, which made an official announcement of the ceasefire on May 10, was not spared. The Troll Army made ugly comments about his family and daughter. He had to do his X account private. A minister of Madhya Pradesh gave a very objectionable statement about Lieutenant Colonel Sophia Qureshi, who gave press briefing, on which the Jabalpur High Court directed to make an FIR. Another minister there also came into the limelight to make indecent statements about the army.
The central government also blocked the handle of several Indian media platforms in an attempt to block social media handles and news platforms that broadcasted Pakistani nectar, propaganda and misinformation, which was described as an attack on the freedom of the press in a section of the press and civil society. In contrast, the voices that criticized the government or army in Pakistan were not closed, but there are only a few listeners.
The British novelist George Orwell wrote in his memoir homes to Catalonia in 1938 that the most scary reality of war is preaching, screaming, falsehood and hatred. It always comes from people who are not fighting. He wrote, “It is the same in all wars; Soldiers fight, journalists shout, and no alleged true patriot ever gets even near the front, except for a few publicity tours.
Two years after the end of World War II ended, Gustav M. Gilbert, who monitored American psychological and Nazi cases, wrote in his 1947 book Nueurmberg Diary that a great Nazi officer Harman Goring said in an interview in the jail in 1946 that common people do not want war, but they are easy to bathe for their health. Goring had said, “Tell people that they are being attacked and take out the patriotism of those who call for peace.”
Decades after these comments, we have to find true, which is hidden in many layers of fake news and fabricated headlines. War brings destruction. Ask them whose life and property suffers a huge loss. Those people living near the border can be any army personnel. It also affects the economy. But the media, especially for TV news channels, is a spectacle, a tournament in which people become obsessed, dumplings in the drawing room, drinking something warm or cold with salty. Banrtrand Russell wrote in his 1915 essay The Ethics of War, “The greatest evil in all the evils of war is pure spiritual evil, refuting hatred, injustice, truth….”
