Fake news on social media fans India-Pakistan tension

mumbai — With India and Paki- stan standing on the brink of war this week, several false videos, pictures and messages circulated widely on social media, sparking anger and heightening tension in both countries.

The video of an injured pilot from a recent Indian air show and images from a 2005 earthquake have been taken out of context to attempt to mislead tens of millions on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and its messenger service, WhatsApp.

The spurt of fake news comes after New Delhi this week launched an air strike inside Pakistan.

As claims and counter claims poured in from both sides, social media became a hotbed of unverified news, pictures and video clips, according to fact checkers.

Partik Sinha, co-founder of one such fact-checking website,

said it had received requests to verify news from journalists and people on social media.

“It’s been crazy since Tuesday. There is so much out there that we know is fake, but we’re not able to fact-check all of it,” Sinha said.

A Facebook group that says it supports Amit Shah, the Bharatiya Janata Party chief, posted images on Tuesday of the alleged destruction caused inside Pakistan by the Indian air strike.

Three photos posted on the group page showed debris from a destroyed building and bodies and have been shared hundreds of times.

said the pictures were from a 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.

India, where roughly 450 million people have smartphones, is already struggling with a huge fake news problem with misinformation having led to mass beatings and mob lynchings.

Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have begun to take steps to combat the issue, but as India heads toward general elections, due by May, fake news is getting more intensely politicised.

In Pakistan, a purported video of a second captured Indian pilot was being widely circulated. Factchecking website noted the clip was from an air show in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, where two planes crashed on February 19. —

It’s been crazy since Tuesday. There is so much out there that we know is fake, but we’re not able to fact-check all of it

Partik Sinha, co-founder of AltNews