On 7 May, the Indian armed forces began Operation Sindoor – a response to a terrorist attack in April which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan. The resulting conflict, involving missile strikes, drone attacks and downed aircraft, lasted until a ceasefire on 11 May. This incident offers a case study of crisis-related disinformation and the limitations of current content moderation approaches.

ISD identified false claims which had received millions of views without any moderation, sometimes using AI-generated content or misleading images; some successfully crossed into national news media, effectively creating a reinforcing cycle. This Dispatch explores the deceptive techniques used to promote false information in a critical moment for national security and offers recommendations for improving current approaches to limiting its spread.

Key findings

• Posts making false claims about attacks on both India and Pakistan spread unchecked on X (formerly Twitter), reaching millions of views. A single claim that Karachi port had been destroyed received 2M views over a week and still has not received a Community Note.
• Actors used a variety of deceptive tactics to support fabricated claims, including using old and unrelated video footage, posting AI-generated content of senior political or military figures, and the apparent hacking of a Pakistani government account.
• The response from social media platforms was inadequate. Users often turned to X’s platform features to verify...

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