Hasan & Muhammad Awan - 21/07/25
Executive Summary:
This report explores how misinformation and the fear surrounding it have become powerful tools of modern warfare and political control. Long before physical conflict erupts, battles are fought through headlines, social media, and controlled narratives. In today’s digital age, misinformation acts not only as a weapon but as a strategy used by states, media, and institutions to shape perceptions, stifle dissent, and consolidate power.
Objectives of this report
1. The “Panic Industry”: Who Benefits from Fear of Misinformation
Governments and media institutions often overemphasise the threat of misinformation to expand control over digital and public narratives.
“Anti-misinformation” campaigns can be used to delegitimise alternative viewpoints, especially during conflicts.
2. Misinformation as a Wartime Weapon
All sides in war use misinformation and disinformation: false casualty numbers, fake videos, exaggerated victories, etc.
War reporting is rarely neutral—truth is often the first casualty.
3. Censorship in the Name of “Truth”
Wartime governments censor independent media or block foreign outlets by claiming they spread misinformation.
4. Public Confusion: Information Overload vs. Real Insight
The more “fact-checking” and contradictory claims there are, the more the public becomes confused or disengaged.
5. Social Media Platforms: Moderators or Puppets?
Platforms like Twitter, Meta, and YouTube are pressured to take sides during conflicts, removing content or flagging posts.
Introduction
Before the first bullet or missile is fired, the war has already begun, on screens, in headlines, across hashtags. Battles now unfold not just in the skies, but in comment sections and posts, where the truth is twisted and manipulated before it reaches the public. In this new era of digital warfare, the first weapon that is deployed is no longer a missile; it’s a news headline.
Misinformation has become another shadow soldier; fast, invisible, but deeply effective. But the fear surrounding it is equally dangerous. In modern conflicts, information is easily manipulated, positioned and sacrificed like chess pieces on a board few can see in full. Governments manoeuvre narratives, and the media and tech platforms are pressured to suppress or amplify content. During the Russia-Ukraine conflict, for instance, disinformation and censorship operated to shape the global understanding of the war[1].
This report examines the creation of panic around misinformation and how the fight to manipulate truth becomes a potent weapon in its own right.
Manufacturing Fear: The Power Behind the Panic
While the battle against misinformation might aptly be dubbed the defence of truth, it can quickly become a mute exercise in control. Misinformation has its part to play, but so does the anxiety over disinformation, both of which take centre stage in swaying audiences. Around the world, governments, mainstream media outlets, and powerful institutions use that anxiety to control the public conversation. By putting themselves into the role of defenders and heroes of truth, the state gains power over how, what, and who everyone sees, reads, and agrees to accept as legitimate truth.
Such narratives allow states to pass vague “anti-misinformation” legislation disguised as a protection of the public from harm. The Indian government, with its introduction of the IT Rules 2021, allowed authorities to take down “unlawful content” from social media and various online platforms, with little in terms of transparency[2]. A similar situation occurred in Russia when, after passing wartime laws in 2022, laws were passed that prohibited reporting on the military, which led to the arrest of reporters and the shutdown of reporting outlets[3].
Media organisations often contribute to this fabricated panic. When there is political turmoil or armed conflict, mainstream media outlets often align - consciously or subconsciously - with official discourse and become amplifiers of government messaging while dismissing any dissent and marginalising any views that do not align with the narrative as unreliable or subversive. Of course, fact-checking organisations are useful with their approach, but they rarely escape institutional bias - many of them are funded and supported by the very governments and corporations they claim to analyse[4]. Consequently, the 'truth' is curated and controlled as a commodity - it is only available through sanctioned networks. Moreover, all manufactured fears are a double-edged sword - they can protect us from legitimate upset, but also fail to punish dissent, discourage scepticism and narrow the boundaries of legitimate discourse. So, the danger is the distribution of lies, but we are not just in danger of being lied to; we could live in a world where only a select few get to define what truth is.
Weaponising Lies: Misinformation in Warfare
In today’s digital warfare age, the frontline extends further than battlefield strategies; it includes digital media where each misphrasing, image or fake headline serves as a weapon of influence. Misinformation has grown into weapons of war, calculated battlefield tactics intended to shape public viewing, destroy trust, and create psychological warfare.
Modern conflicts use information offensives by all sides. For the Ukraine-Russia war, both governmental powers orchestrated digital narratives whereby each government’s use of social media aided their military and political goals. Russian misinformation grew via the "firehose of falsehood" - where the media is overwhelmed with much-distracting information that runs contrary to give me the "general unnecessary"[5]. An academic study revealed over 300,000 pro-Russian Tweets, and a systematic bot operation toward 14 million users of false or manipulated narratives[6].
The rise of visual misinformation is also a growing concern. Deepfakes, manipulated images, and AI-generated visuals are used with increasing frequency to misinform domestic and international audiences alike. A video that circulated widely in the early stages of the invasion of Ukraine was a digitally manipulated President Zelenskyy asking Ukrainian soldiers to surrender—this was quickly fact-checked, but it reached a large audience[7]. Likewise, in the ongoing Israel–Hamas conflict, past conflicts have been repackaged and labelled as more recent footage, producing outrage and confusion[8].
In this fog of narrative warfare, civilians are not bystanders—they are targets. Once public trust is shattered due to contending truths, any headline is suspect, and any fact may be contested. The problem with misinformation is not only that it lies, but it replaces order with disorder.
Silencing Dissent: When Gatekeeping Replaces Journalism
Each nation follows its narrative, unique in its way, dyed in its colours. A narrative defines what the country wants or needs; it can become an excuse for a country to make and break ties with other sovereign states. In every era mankind has gone through, every kingdom, every state, there has been one common occurrence, and that is an opposition to the rulers and ruling parties. To deal with this “annoyance” over time, multiple methods have been used as tools to “silence” these voices that dare to speak against the ruling class.
This act of silencing dissent exists in every governmental body; the methods differ from one governmental system to another, however, it is an unstoppable action for the “political security” of a nation. We have examples like the Nazis, who would put anyone that doesn't fit their narrative in concentration camps, or modern nations like the United States, which have caused bloodshed against nations or people who don’t go with what they propose.
Every conflict has a minimum of two parties, both involved in the conflict directly, and during a conflict, the nation that wins is the one that has its citizens' support and the support of other sovereign states. And this only happens when the people of your country and the supporting countries follow a similar narrative that benefits all.
Often, countries that seem stable, peaceful, and calm have a dark secret they don't let the public know. May it be some incident that needs to be covered up for the sake of “stability” or it can be a movement that needed to be silenced as it posed threat to the current government of the nations, however, there can be another possibility, it could be to cover up something the government is doing that if the people know will stir rebellions and riots. An example of this could be seen in China, other countries, and organisations have accused China that they are carrying out mass murders against the Uyghur minority in their territory and then silencing any news relating to them, like a repetition of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
Or it could be similar to how the Israeli media shows news to their citizens, “terrorist bomber shot dead by the IDF” is often in reality, “a child running from bombs shot dead by the IDF”, ask any Israeli they will wholeheartedly believe that all the IDF does is kill bad terrorists who have been trying to bomb them and that’s not their fault its just how their government silences any other news from reaching the populace.
It is all about keeping a country’s stability by silencing dissent.
Confused and Overwhelmed: The Public in the Crossfire
Enough discussing narratives and dissent, let's see what happens when an actual conflict arises. As an example to make things easier to simulate, let's take the recent Iran-Israel conflict. Israel attacked Iran as it felt that they had polar opposite stances. In return, Iran bombed back, the usual. But what happened? As always, it was the public that could do nothing in this situation that suffered. On both sides, the missiles made contact and exploded, destroying infrastructure, civilian buildings, and military sites. In the end, who suffers? The public, as always, 950 dead in Iran and 30-40 dead in Israel. What did these people do? In today's time, we often forget that a child doesn’t have a political opinion, which immediately excuses their death; innocents dying can not be justified.
That conflict was just an example, but it is factual in every conflict: the people are the ones who suffer the most, politicians and leaders go into hiding in their bunkers whilst their people burn alive.
Before a conflict fully begins, our leaders fill our heads with hate towards the “others”, and when it ends, these politicians themselves go to shake the hands of these so-called “others”. Who has to suffer through the effects of war, well, of course, again, it's the normal populace, build more factories, work more, earn more, rebuild the country back to its “glory”.
During a conflict, oftentimes most countries lack the political power to guide the people and help them, so a massive state of confusion starts where no one has any idea what to do, how to survive, how to live, how to eat, how to sleep, how to get shelter.
"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell," - General William Tecumseh Sherman
Social Media: Referee or Mouthpiece
The act of using news outlets or movies to shape public perception has been used since before the Cold War. Now, however, most countries make use of social media in doing this, seeing how easy it is to manipulate the public narrative with.
Every invention has its pros and its cons. The pros of social media are how open it is and how even the smallest issues can get attention because of it. Anyone can use it, just get a device, download an app, and you're ready to enter the world of social media, and it is just as easy to make content and post on social media, with just a click of the button. However, that in of itself is a flaw; everyone uses social media, but social media in of itself isn't the most secure when it comes to privacy.
It may seem like social media is controlled by the users, but in reality, many “trends” have other motives behind them. For example in the recent India-Pakistan conflict the Pakistani citizens were making memes about the war and making them go viral, at a glance it looks harmless but social media is now such a massive platform that these memes helped the world get to know about the conflict from Pakistan’s point of view, immediately allowing them to win over the international community. So, from this, we can see that during conflicts, oftentimes social media only makes the situation bigger and gets more attention towards it, rather than trying to stop it.
Alongside this, on the point of privacy on these apps, every single bit of data being taken in and leaving can be easily accessed by the local government, and they then try to censor any information they regard as “unnecessary” or against the “public” narrative. So we aren’t browsing “securely”; we are always being studied for suspicious activity.
So, social media can be used like modernised news propaganda. It can attract attention to really important issues, like how Gazans now actively post on social media to let the people know of their living conditions, but it can also play a major role in worsening a conflict.
Case Studies: When Misinformation Shaped History
In the digital battlefield of today, Russia and Ukraine both recognise that information can serve as a weapon. Early on in the invasion of Ukraine, state-controlled Russian media initiated a coordinated campaign using the "firehose of falsehood" to push out numerous potential conflicting narratives into the information environment that would cause public confusion and reduce public trust in the information space[5]. As part of the coordinated Russian campaign, automated bot networks would drive high-sensational claims, including claims of Ukraine staging its own atrocities and inflated casualty figures, with targeted and widespread disinformation with millions of impressions[6].
One infamous example was a deepfake that falsely depicted President Zelenskyy surrendering, superimposing his head over footage from a wrestling match. This fake was quickly disproven, but the damage was done, and the video had been widely shared publicly before Ukraine could respond. University College Cork found in an academic study released in 2023 that such deepfakes not only mislead and misinform, but also "moved the needle toward eroding trust" in all visual evidence and ultimately caused people to question and doubt all video footage[9][10]. Conversely, popular myths like the popularization of the "Ghost of Kyiv"—a mythical fighter pilot that spread quickly online within the realm of possibly morale-boosting fiction—were publicly confirmed as myth while minimizing the role of even admitting government acknowledgement of unverifiable characteristics that had later emerged from a spirit of boastful pride, not evidence, to buttress Western support for Ukraine[11].
Ukraine's response was to use open-source intelligence (OSINT) groups like Bellingcat, which were able to verifiably recall incident reporting in near real-time by using a combination of geolocation, satellite imagery, and analysis of metadata to see the verifiability of shots taken by amateur and professional reporters and pundits alike[12]. Although there were and will always be semantic labelling games to be played at this juncture, the momentum of back-and-forth narratives as misinformation on a spectrum has been both weaponised and deliberate and not simply noise. Ultimately, it manifests as a wealth persuasion, strategic positioning and global opinions.
Conclusion
Misinformation today is more than a wartime consequence - it is a deliberate weapon. But the panic surrounding it is equally dangerous. States and institutions often use the fear of misinformation and falsehoods as camouflaging tactics to stifle dissent, tighten control, and manipulate public imaginations under the pretence of protecting the truth. If war is like a game of chess, then misinformation is the queen. It moves faster than any other piece on the board; is unpredictable; and can change the shape and outcome of the game long before the final play is played.
“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies” ~ Winston Churchill
Opinions from the authors:
Muhammad Awan’s Opinion:
In an era such as ours, information and the ways to manipulate information matter more than just raw strength. A country may have power militarily, but if it lacks other aspects, such as the ability to manipulate ideas and data to fulfil its narrative, then it is considered a weak country. The wars now fought aren’t just on land, air, and sea; they are in words, speeches, videos, accusations, and claims. We see many examples of how countries make their enemies look like the spawn of the devil simply by manipulating news sources, statistics, and words. Meanwhile, they also set ablaze the hearts of the residents of their enemies' civilians, making it seem like their government is persecuting them, so that instability stirs, and when instability stirs, the nation loses its strength and collapses in on itself. So in today's time, we are fighting much more complicated wars where one word can determine the fate of our people for the worst or the best.
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting" - Sun Tzu
Hasan’s Opinion:
To me, misinformation is not only a side effect of war; it is an art form that serves as a weapon for those who wield it for nefarious purposes. Misinformation is an immensely powerful tool for controlling public sentiment and public opinion, to actively sway the emotions of a population or affect the narrative of public discourse. It allows people in power to manufacture truth; misinformation can be a weapon, and subsequently ostracising the public can cause collateral damage. In times of war, misinformation is often used to deceive not just the enemy but also to create a specific state of mind for the audience at home, either by instilling an imposed sense of purpose or fear. The most vicious part of misinformation is how quickly misinformation becomes the dominant narrative and establishes itself as reality, often suffocating dissenting voices and minimising opportunities for critical engagement.
As author Aldous Huxley once warned, “Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” While it is certainly possible for people to manipulate the narrative through silence, I find that fear is often the more insidious motivation for silence in the age of misinformation. Censorship and distraction also serve to promote silence. When public truth makes itself a buried truth, even genuine disagreement with the fabrications of misinformation becomes suspect.
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Muhammad Awan and Hasan are Analysts at Roshni