Tejusvi Shukla, Vivekananda International Foundation
A Special Meeting of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) was conducted in India in October this year. It was led by the External Affairs Minister, Dr S. Jaishankar, on India’s behalf, where he emphasized the increasing usage of emerging technologies, especially social media, for furthering terrorism. While he rightly mentioned the threat that looms due to the spontaneous technological adaptation by various operational terror outfits globally, a very oblique reference was made regarding the role played by certain states (sponsoring terrorism) in facilitating this adaptation. Social media has contemporarily been perceived as a critical medium of influencing public perceptions at a mass scale, inflicting irreparable damage – often termed “Influence Operations” in military parlance. Given that this was proposed against the backdrop of India being a constant victim of state-sponsored terrorism by its western neighbour (and as increasingly perceived in the information domain) this aspect necessitates a slightly detailed discussion. A careful study of the history of Pakistan’s Influence Operations against India (most specifically focussed on Jammu and Kashmir) suggests that this goes far beyond these popular platforms – both in time and space.
