India loses information war to country that wasn't technically allowed online

“In information warfare, perception is the battlefield. If the news damages the other side—true or false—amplify it. Post it. Share it. Make it viral. Let panic spread across the border. If the news harms us — even if true — bury it. Suppress it. Disarm it before it spreads. This is not journalism. This is war. Every post is a bullet. Never fire one at your own country.”

— Anonymous X user, Indo-Pak conflict, May 2025

“Jung karni ho to 9 baje se pehle kerlena — 9:15 per gas chali jati hai humari.” (If you want to finish a war, do it before 9 PM — our gas goes off at 9:15.)

— Pakistani X user, also during the conflict, May 2025

When Indian missiles struck multiple targets inside Pakistan on May 7, 2025, two wars began simultaneously. One war involved aircraft, coordinates, and competing casualty figures that neither side would ever fully agree on. The other war was fought on X, Instagram and WhatsApp, in Urdu, Hindi, English and meme formats that require no language at all.

The first war ended in four days of contested claims and a ceasefire both sides described as a victory. The second war had a clearer and a far more unexpected result. Our netizens turned the odds in their favour. They not only fought but actually won the narrative battle. It is the question of how it did this that illuminates the direction of information warfare, and who, unexpectedly, is leading it there.

It shouldn’t have been this outcome. India entered the information war with every structural advantage. Multi-decade disinformation influence operations documented by international watchdogs produced one of the most organised online nationalist ecosystems on the planet. India was coordinated, enormous, and primed for exactly this kind of conflict.

While we might take pride in our fifth-gen warriors or 5Gs, Pakistan entered the infowars with a year-long ban on the platform where most of the battle would be fought, in a country where blackouts (electricity, internet, press freedom) are a condition of daily life rather than a wartime imposition. And yet, we prevailed.

We saw a preview in Balakot, circa 2019, in a brazen act of diplomatic trolling. India’s Mirage jets crossed into Pakistan and, by India’s telling, killed hundreds of militants in a precision counter-terrorism strike. According to Pakistan’s version and that of Reuters reporters who visited the site, India actually killed four trees and some crows. India held a press conference. Pakistan filed an FIR against unnamed IAF pilots for environmental destruction, submitted a formal dossier to the United Nations demanding India be declared an “eco-terrorist,” and moved to strip Modi of the “Champion of the Earth” award the UN had given him. A song was composed in memory of the fallen trees. An annual holiday (Fantastic Tea Day) was established to honour Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who had been served chai in Pakistani captivity and had called it “fantastic”.

Pakistan did not contest India’s narrative. It replaced it with one so specific, so absurd, and so verifiably grounded that India’s victory claims curdled on contact. This is Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath at work. The giant loses not because David is stronger, but because David refuses to play the giant’s game. India wanted a narrative war conducted on the........

© Dawn Prism