A communications blackout in India’s powder-keg Kashmir region is fueling a fake news war with Pakistan, as both sides unleash a deluge of disinformation to fill the vacuum and shape opinion.
India cut access to Kashmir’s internet and phone lines in august as it sought to contain the fallout of its decision to revoke the region’s autonomy.
The stripping of autonomy triggered fury in neighboring Pakistan, which also claims the Muslim-majority territory, as well as the region’s seven million people.
While landlines and mobile phones have since been restored, internet remains cut and foreign journalists have been unable to enter.
In the absence of real news from Kashmir, waves of false information have emerged online.
Disinformation has ranged from old photos from Gaza purportedly showing how India has turned Kashmir into a “living hell”, to old images of happy children falsely claiming all is well in “the new Kashmir”.
