Information warfare refers to the manipulation of information to engineer the perception of the targeted audience so that they start to question their own government’s narrative and act against their own national interests. In the age of information empowerment of the masses, state’s monopoly on information has been compromised; media has developed a capability to directly affect national and international issues. According to Analysts With a combined population of 1.5 billion, India and Pakistan are hot growth markets for Facebook and Twitter. As per the Reuters Report , Pakistan and India flirted with war in February, when they carried out aerial bombing missions against each other’s territory for the first time since the 1971 war and fought a brief fight over the Kashmir skies, That flare-up was accompanied by a fierce propaganda war on social media.
At the same time Defence ministry of india clears information warfare branch for Army to counter fake news.
According to Ministry Of Defence, keeping with the needs of future battlefield, hybrid warfare and social media reality, the new branch will be under the Directorate General Information Warfare, the branch will be headed by a Lieutenant General rank officer. It’s main idea is to have a robust mechanism under one head to make information warfare more effective. In 2018 Lt. Gen. R.S. Panwar (Retd.) said that while the U.S., China and Russia had already taken concrete steps to strengthen their information warfare techniques, India was yet to take an appropriate call on it. According to Lt. Gen. S.P. Kochar, information warfare must be seen as an enabler to support the Commander during war operations. “A lot still needs to be done in the field of information warfare,” he said, adding that that every jawan’ who entered the training centre should be IT-qualified.
At the same time, Pakistan also suffers from the same problem. There are more than 50 million social media users and approximately 120 million people with smart phones in Pakistan making it larger population than most of the European countries. So It is important that developed and developing nations and states must develop a common National narrative, to deal with the same. While making a long term strategy, these countries have to develop a concept that address both the positive projection of their country image and at the same time erects effective firewalls against a plethora of negative blitz from outside and within the country. Both The states and their major stake holders should have a wholesome view of post truth era and how it is impacting governance and state security. An informed debate and a compatible strategy can guide the nation. While freedom of expression has reached a new level of chaos, the states have to develop structures and mechanisms for information management. It is imperative for the authorities of both the countries to realise the importance of information and develop a comprehensive strategy . It is very important that youth are made aware of these traps laid by enemy stakeholders.
(The author is a freelancer from central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Views are his own)
