India-Pak tensions: Fake news spreading like wildfire on social media; list of fake news and messages

NEW DELHI: Messages filled with fake news linking and exaggerating border clashes have spread on social media. Pakistan, which is reeling in the face of Indian retaliation, is misusing social media to hide its defeat. Pakistani handles are the source of many false news.

The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has said that such news should not be believed and that false news should not be shared. The fact-checking department of the Press Information Bureau is on high alert to detect fake news.

Some of the fake news that is being circulated:

• A video of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon in 2020 is being circulated with the claim that Pakistan launched a missile attack on India.
• A fake video is being circulated through Pakistani handles claiming that an Indian post was destroyed by the Pakistani army.
• The drone attack video that is being circulated as if it was from Jalandhar is of a fire in a farm. The time of the video can be seen as 7:39 pm. The drone attack was carried out around 8:30 pm.
• The multiple explosions that are being circulated at the Jammu Air Force Base are actually from the explosion at the Kabul airport in August 2021.
• The WhatsApp message that ATMs in the country will be closed for 2-3 days due to the conflict is fake.
• Videos from a video game are being circulated as if it were a Pakistani attack on India. These have been on the internet for over three years.
• The claim that India's Sukhoi 30 aircraft was shot down in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan and the pilot was taken into custody is of the aircraft that crashed during training in Kulwadi village, Pune on October 14, 2014.
• A fake Facebook account is being circulated in the name of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. He does not have an official Facebook account.
• The WhatsApp message that the central government has opened a bank account with the aim of modernizing the Indian Army is fake.
• The claim that Pakistan attacked Jammu is of the incident that took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh, last February.