Deepfakes as Statecraft: Information Warfare and Strategic Narratives in the 2025 India–Pakistan Conflict

The rapid spread of deepfakes—AI-enabled synthetic content—is altering the information environment in which contemporary conflicts unfold. This policy brief examines the increasing use of deepfakes, focusing on the May 2025 India–Pakistan conflict. It argues that deepfakes mark an important development in information warfare, broadening the range and complexity of information operations and raising the potential for influence, manipulation, and coercion. In this case, both states distributed a variety of deepfakes to support strategic narratives, undermine adversarial morale while boosting their own, and target both domestic and international audiences. The brief concludes with implications for Canada, highlighting the importance of improved detection capabilities, coordinated institutional responses, and ongoing efforts to strengthen societal resilience to deepfake-enabled information operations.