War and TRUTH

A war is not just an armed conflict for physical control of a geographical territory; it's also about shaping larger public opinion with carefully curated propaganda

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

REVOLUTIONS may or may not be televised but wars will always be. In the absence of real footage, clips from video games, videos generated by artificial intelligence and old, unrelated visuals can keep viewers engaged. When facts from official sources are coming late, are scarce or not exciting enough, unverified content on social media platforms can fill in the gap. But the coverage must go on. Every moment belongs to the race for Television Rating Point (TRP)—revenue. Facts are just collateral damage.

On the night of May 6, India launched targeted aerial attacks at some locations in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the Indian military identified these sites as terror training centres. The objective was to avenge the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed 26 lives. Soon after the news of 'Operation Sindoor' broke, social media platforms like X, Facebook and Instagram got flooded with videos claiming that Pakistan had shot down five Indian aircraft.

When the US broadcaster CNN asked Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif for proof of the claim of shooting down five Indian jets, he said: "It's all over social media. Not our social media, the Indian social media."