The spread of electronic media and the digital revolution have turned the world into a global village. Information, news, and events can now travel anywhere in the world with no restrictions. Even before the governments can respond and exert control, these events tend to reach every living room due to social media. The social, economic, and political spheres have been altered by the media’s expanded role. The images displayed on platforms become the basis of what people think, believe, and perceive. It has impacted everyone’s daily lives. Due to this expansion of media, disinformation propaganda has emerged which is used as a tool for multiple purposes.

Disinformation is the intentional spread of misleading information. It is a deliberate attempt to take the form of fake news. Government organizations are largely responsible for spreading disinformation, but some non-governmental organizations and individuals have also done so. Through fake news they deceive the public from the truth. Disinformation can be created through disseminating false reports, fake papers, manuscripts, and images. Employing these strategies result in defamation of the targeted personality or organisation.

The disinformation campaigns in Pakistan are problematic because they provoke strong sentiments, enabling personal attacks against political opponents, further dividing the society. Furthermore, some groups use bots to influence public opinion on various social media platforms in order to further their own agendas. These bots are employed to carry out particular tasks more quickly than humans, including repeatedly disseminating false information.

With the rise of social media, internet access, and smartphone use, fake news has become a major problem in Pakistan in recent years. According to DataReportal it is estimated that Pakistan had 71.70 million social media users in January 2022 due to which more information is being accessible through digital means and there is less reliance on conventional media. Hence fake news regarding politics, economics, military matters, gender, culture, and religion are disemminated. According to a poll by the Digital Rights Fund, 8% of Pakistani journalists who took part indicated that in their newsrooms, information is frequently not examined and that they have accepted false material as true.

The EU DisinfoLab has often used solid evidence to demonstrate India’s role in disinformation campaigns against Pakistan and China. The international community went on to condemn this immoral behaviour but this was not enough to persuade India into correcting its actions. It is obvious that a more effective approach is required, and it is now our responsibility to develop strategies that forbids the use of such tactics and with international collaboration we should impose sanctions against those who are held accountable.

The most recent investigative study, “Bad Sources,” exposed Asian News International (ANI) as a fraud. The ANI distributes bogus information as news to millions of people in India using invalid media sources like EP Today and EU Chronicles. These sources feed the existing bitter sentiments that the Indian state has promoted towards Pakistan. What’s worse is that two other investigations that came out before this one brought attention to India’s continuous defamation campaign against its competitors. This means that, unfortunately, we have not been able to exert enough pressure on the Indian government to stop its unashamed attempts to bring other states down. This includes Pakistan, China, and the rest of the world community.

According to President Dr. Arif Alvi, India is waging a full-scale disinformation campaign against Pakistan. He emphasized that Pakistan must develop “cyber muscle” to combat this propaganda. The President made this statement  that “India had not learned the lesson even after the EU Disinfo Lab had exposed its network of misinformation against Pakistan,”. He claimed that Pakistan needed to develop “cyber strength” in addition to other traditional forms of defence in order to “intellectually” counter the propaganda.

Hence, Pakistan needs to be educated in modern disciplines, including artificial intelligence, cyberspace, and data-driven technology. Although Pakistan had professional competence in conventional and traditional defence, such as nuclear deterrence, establishing a strong presence in cyberspace was equally essential for survival. Therefore, having a solid understanding of cyberspace as well as artificial intelligence is one of the finest ways to provide modern skills to the nation particularly to the ever growing youth population. As the world has seen unprecedented developments in the domains of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, we should also educate the youth and provide them with skilled human resources.

The rising levels of disinformation campaign and propaganda may have serious implications, including the loss of public confidence in democratic processes and the destabilization of governmental institutions and democracy. The establishment of standards for determining whether the news is credible or not, as well as media literacy, are urgently needed. Factracker is a firm that aims to expose fake news on internet platforms ensuring a more equitable distribution of information that, in turn, improves digital democracy. In addition, the use of Artificial Intelligence for fact-checking must be developed to detect the disinformation that has been developed by any state against Pakistan. Hence by limiting the role of social media and by expanding the role of cyberspace Pakistan will ultimately deal with this serious challenge of disinformation campaigns and will overcome its problem.