Journalists from India’s largest media outlets talked about the reasons behind the prevalence of lies during the country’s most recent conflict with Pakistan in an interview with The Washington Post. According to a survey by Karishma Mehrotra, lies were pervasive in the country’s information landscape.
Just after midnight on May 9, the state-owned public broadcaster Prasar Bharati sent a WhatsApp message to an Indian media representative, according to Mehrotra’s report. According to The News, the letter claimed that Pakistan’s army chief had been captured and that a coup was underway.
The reporter immediately spread the word about X, and others followed suit. It was aired on various Indian news networks and rapidly became popular on social media.