India should respond to Pak misinfo war with economic warfare

The power of fifth-generation warfare is that rogue actors and nations can create diplomatic and economic fallouts primarily through "non-kinetic military action."

Who would have thought a social media "picture message" by a Pakistan dealer of auto giant Hyundai would force a response in the Indian Parliament, lead to diplomatic exchange between India and South Korea, and raise a Twitter storm?

Well, where Pakistan is involved, anything is possible!

Pakistan marks February 5 as so-called "Kashmir Solidarity Day". This year, it decided to drag a few international brands that have a presence in India and Pakistan in its geopolitical conflict. It started with a Pakistani Dealer of Hyundai, followed by other popular brands like Pizza Hut and KFC, who released picture messages on social media expressing 'solidarity' with Kashmir. This was enough to infuriate Indian netizens, who unleashed a full-fledged counterattack by calling for the boycott of Hyundai in India. The #BoycottHyundai with 200.8K tweets was trending top on Twitter. On its face, this incident, which forced a diplomatic response from India, may seem to be an act of an individual or local dealer. However, a deeper investigation may reveal the real culprit is the Pakistani establishment that has mastered the art of misinformation, also known as fifth-generation warfare, where it uses social media to roll out its version of war of perception. Time and again, it comes up with unique ways to bring Kashmir on the international stage, though it always ends up on the losing side; however, this time, its first strike advantage allowed it to get under the skin of the Indian netizens.

What is Fifth Generation Warfare?

There is "no widely agreed-upon definition of fifth-generation warfare." However, the globalised world is witnessing fifth-generation warfare play out across different mediums, including social media, which is used as a non-kinetic weapon to spread misinformation. Daniel Abbot, author of The Handbook of Fifth-Generation Warfare," had described fifth Generation warfare as "a war of information and perception." Since the advent of social media as a powerful global messaging medium, it has been used by States and non-State actors to promote their agenda to create unrest and lead to violence and even acts of terrorism. Terry Terriff, the author of Global Insurgency and the Future of Armed Conflict, argues that "while fifth-generation warfare allows "super-empowered individuals" to make political statements through terrorism, they lack the political power to actually have their demands met."

Pakistan has been an early adopter of Fifth-generation warfare to push its Kashmir agenda on various global forums, including the UN. It has not shied away from using false narratives fake pictures from Palestine to push its agenda. In Pakistan, without the knowledge and encouragement of its military, nothing moves. So, to think that an executive or a dealer working for Hyundai or KFC could conceive and execute the tactful Kashmir message would be foolish. The Pakistani establishment would have carefully picked brands such as Hyundai to unleash its misinformation jihad and, encouraged by the netizens response, would have dragged other brands such as KFC and Pizza Hut.

For all the right reasons, Indian netzines on social are breathing fire, and most are calling on Indians to boycott Hyundai cars in India.

How did Hyundai and other brands get dragged into this controversy?

Many have rightly asked why a company like Hyundai, which "sells over 1.6 million cars in India" and holds the "third-largest market share at 16 per cent," pitch for the Pakistan market, where it "sells only 8,000 cars." Such a business blunder has baffled netizens. However, the truth is Hyundai Pakistan's blunder has mischief of Pakistan establishment written all over it.

It is a known fact that retired Pakistan generals own and run multiple businesses. Thus, one cannot completely rule out that some of these brands are owned or funded by retired Pak army personnel. That would explain why the Pakistan establishment can pull off such actions. The social media storm would encourage the Pakistani think-tank within its establishment to fabricate more such incidents around Kashmir in future too. Thus, if India has to prevent such incidents in future, then an appropriate response is needed.

Economic warfare: India should use its diplomatic clout and market size to launch economic warfare that creates a situation where Hyundai and other international brands close their business across Pakistan partly or fully. Such a diplomatic offensive which can lead to job losses and impact the local industry, especially when there is unrest across Pakistan due to its failing economy, can surely light a fire under Imran Khan's seat.

(The author is Founder, MyStartup TV)