Desk correspondent , Delhi - It has come up that Pakistan has been taking advantage of the unrest in the middle eastern region. The Iranian Navy frigate, IRIS Dena was shot down by US military on March 4th on the Sri Lanka coast. This incident involved the US and Iran but in order to damage India's diplomatic status a coordinated disinformation was spread by Pakistan as assessed by the open- sources. Right after this maritime torpedo attack, it was noticed that a false pretense was circulating all over the internet under the hashtag, #IndiaBetraysIran. 

Recently the warship, IRIS had participated in a naval exercise hosted by India, hence it became easier to alter the reality and spread the said rumour. Since the ship had been sighted in the India premises earlier, it was easy for the people on the internet to verify it, and mistaking the recent attack to be related and instigated by India. India is being framed to have leaked the location of IRIS Dena which made the attack happen. 

The sources have also mentioned that this has been a planned campaign. As per the sign suggests, it is a hub-and-spoke-style amplification. It starts with an account( @TacticalTribun) with a history of instigating such messages, and then spreading to other accounts that are ideologically linked to it. Most of the engagement came from users in Pakistan and a few from, pro-Iran and anti-war communities that helped the message grow geographically. 

Pakistan has been known to pull such a stunt previously too. And the audience aware of this tactics state that, although it was short-lived, it shows the impact of misinformation in geopolitical warfare, as it initially left a sense of distrust.