AI Deepfakes Fueling Anti-India Disinformation

December 06, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

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Hours after the deadly crash of an indigenous fighter aircraft, Tejas, that claimed the life of an Indian Air Force pilot at the Dubai Air Show on November 21; a deepfake video appearing to show Air Chief Marshal AP Singh chastising the government against inducting the indigenous fighter jet into the air force, circulated on X. 

The fake video was yet another example of a co-ordinated disinformation campaign targeting India since the Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir and India’s military Operation Sindoor earlier this year. Read on!

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A new frontier of synthetic propaganda 

A cluster of X handles are targeting India in a bid to destabilise the online discourse through a mix of videos manipulated with AI, fake quotes, bogus letters and fabricated news articles. 

The Elon Musk-owned platform’s newly introduced ‘About this account’ feature showed their locations as Pakistan. 

It is not clear who is behind this campaign, however, it bears signatures of an influence operation from a troll farm - synchronised activity, rapid amplification by seemingly unrelated accounts and a mix of fake personas that mimic Indian X users. 

What makes the operation unique is its indiscriminate use of generative AI. BOOM published more than 30 fact-checks flagging synthetic media, since the Pahalgam terror attack.

The campaign has singled out India’s most visible institutions - its military, its national leadership and the national media. 

BOOM’s Karen Rebelo, Anmol Alphonso & Archis Chowdhury identified key X accounts seeding AI-manipulated videos targeting India since the Pahalgam terror attack. The accounts @InsiderWB, @Baba_Thoka, @Hawkss_eye and @abubakarqassam, featured frequently among debunks published by Indian fact-checkers.

Read the full report to find out the narratives being peddled by these accounts.

EXPLAINED

Sanchar Saathi Order Triggers ‘Big Brother’ Concerns Across India

On November 28, 2025, the Indian government quietly directed all smartphone manufacturers to pre-install a government app called Sanchar Saathi on every new device sold or imported into the country, according to media reports. 

However, the government withdrew the pre-installation of the app after facing backlash from opposition leaders and social-media users who termed it a “Big Brother” move, invoking Orwell’s ever-watchful surveillance state from 1984.

Citing a “serious endangerment to telecom cyber security” from duplicate or spoofed IMEIs, the earlier directive required the app to be present on all upcoming smartphones and states that its functionalities cannot be “disabled or restricted,” effectively making it a permanent part of the operating system. 

Legal experts and security researchers told Archis Chowdhury that the primary risk stems from the future capabilities a permanent, government-controlled system app could be given.

DECODE

Kink Meets Code: India’s Search For Desire Is Full Of Red Flags

In a small apartment in central Delhi, Shreyas, 27, and his wife Ayushi, 25, scrolled through profiles on their phone—not of restaurants or vacation rentals, but of other couples and singles nearby. They were using 3Fun, a dating app designed for threesomes and open relationships. 

"We've been together for six years, but got married recently," Shreyas told Jaishree Kumar. "We watched porn together and wondered what it would be like to try out some of those fantasies." 

Ayushi is bisexual; Shreyas is straight. They describe themselves as committed to each other, not polyamorous, but curious and cautious. 

The couple represents a small but growing demographic of urban Indians turning to specialised dating apps to explore desires that remain deeply taboo in mainstream Indian society. Platforms like Feeld, 3Fun, Gleeden, Ashley Madison, and #Open are quietly gaining users, offering features not found on Tinder or Bumble: paired couple profiles, explicit kink preferences, and options for ethical non-monogamy.

'FAKE NEWS’ YOU ALMOST FELL FOR

🔍  Indian mainstream news outlets including India Today and ABP News misreported a deepfake video claiming to show Pakistan former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan calling the country's army chief a “radicalised Islamist” 'who yearns for war with India'; as real. Read 🔗 Anmol Alphonso’s ↗️ fact-check.

🔍  Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar stated on December 1, that India had been “invited” by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA)’s 37 member states to chair the organisation for the first time in its 30-year history. 🔗 Anmol Alphonso ↗️ found it is a misleading claim.

🅱️ RECOMMENDS

This week's recommendation is: Can Democracy Survive the Disruptive Power of AI?

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Verified By Boom is written by Divya Chandra, edited by Adrija Bose and designed by H Shiva Roy Chowdhury.

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