Viral Post Poetically Describing Pakistan's Victory Is Not By The Telegraph UK

The text has a sensationalist tone claiming that “something extraordinary happened—not on the battlefield, but in the diplomatic shadows” and has poetic descriptions of the military strikes by both the countries. Viral on WhatsApp and Facebook, the post lacks any official quotes and makes several false claims including that the Indian Air Force mobilised nearly 180 aircrafts on the western front, with intentions to replicate the 2019 Balakot air strikes. It claims that the IAF was preparing to “break Pakistani defenses, and restore the image of strategic supremacy" but "failed".

BOOM found that the viral message carrying the byline of the newspaper's senior reporter Memphis Barker does not match the original news story published by The Telegraph.

Several X users shared the same message. Archive link.

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BOOM analysed both the original article authored by Barker, titled, “How China helped Pakistan shoot down Indian fighter jets” and the viral forward and found that while the headline and sub-head remain unchanged, the text in the story has been altered to make the fake claim.

We also noticed that the forward does not present any real data or quotes from official sources – unlike the original article — which makes it seem more like a personal blog than a news article.

Below is a comparison of excerpts of the viral message and the original article by The Telegraph.

The viral forwards also leans heavily on making poetic references to the military escalation and makes statements without attributing the information to any official.