The security landscape of South Asia is undergoing a significant transformation, as non-traditional security threats are becoming increasingly prominent compared to traditional security threats. The spread of misinformation and disinformation, along with a deepening energy insecurity, underscores two of the rising issues that require immediate attention in an era of rapid digitisation and global interdependence. These issues are not isolated. Rather, their destabilising potential is amplified by their intersections with inadequate institutional capacity, economic fragility, and gaps in governance. The lack of timely investments in resilience in information ecosystems and energy systems raises the risk of escalating pre-existing issues as South Asian states continue to place a high priority on development and connectivity. It is critical to understand these emerging threats and revisit existing security frameworks and policies, especially as external pressures are exposing internal vulnerabilities.
Misinformation and Disinformation
One of the fastest-growing non-traditional security threats today is misinformation and disinformation. In this day and age, misinformation and disinformation have become a readily accessible tool for a range of actors to achieve political, economic, or ideological objectives. While misinformation refers to the unintentional spread of false information, disinformation is deliberately crafted to mislead audiences for political, ideological, or economic gain. Misinformation and disinformation campaigns can mobilize large populations and also widen societal and political divides. Widespread use of this tool can challenge a government’s legitimacy, incite violent protests, instill panic, and spread extremist ideologies.
There is ample evidence of the structural factors that render South Asia particularly vulnerable. After years of stagnation, 68 percent of South Asians now use the internet. Social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp are widely used for communication, entertainment, and information sharing. While usage patterns differ among various groups and contexts, many users interact with short, highly engaging content like headlines, brief videos, and quick updates. Platforms like Whatsapp and Telegram, for example, can facilitate encrypted, rapid and untraceable spread of information within closed networks, amplifying the reach of false narratives. In a digital environment designed to persuade, mislead, and manipulate, many of these individuals often lack adequate media literacy and remain passive consumers. A significant proportion of new users lack the critical skills required to evaluate information credibility, rendering them susceptible to manipulation. Rapid digitization and low media literacy have made it more feasible for misleading information to circulate freely across national boundaries as users are unlikely to verify the information before sharing.
These vulnerabilities are worsened by the regional information environment. Dramatic and emotionally charged content is frequently given priority on algorithm-driven platforms, which encourages the creation and spread of false information. Such content can very quickly create real-world repercussions in the region, where social, ethnic, and religious divisions are deeply rooted. Digital platforms in the area frequently serve as catalysts for conflicts taking advantage of societal divisions that already existed. Furthermore, the effectiveness of mitigation efforts is diminished by inadequate resources for local-language content moderation and inadequate regulatory frameworks, which allow negative narratives to go virtually unchecked.
Some of the most explosive repercussions of misinformation and disinformation have been well documented in South Asia. The most graphic example may come from India, where mobs killed over two dozen individuals after a video that was altered to look like a kidnapping was shared via WhatsApp. Since 2017, more than forty deaths have occurred as a result of lynch mob mobilisations sparked by accusations via WhatsApp that strangers were kidnappers, cow or beef smugglers, or anti-Hindu. Due to the encrypted and decentralized nature of chat platforms, these campaigns were especially challenging to contain because many users in less accessible places lacked a clear understanding of how digital information flows due to digital illiteracy. Fake photos, inflated death tolls, and mislabeled recordings increased tensions between India and Pakistan during the 2019 Pulwama incident. These strategies are usually employed to deepen religious, ethnic, or political differences.
Some of the most notable instances of election-related misinformation in the region may be found in Bangladesh. A variety of misinformation emerged in the months leading up to the January 2024 national elections, such as phony notifications of candidate withdrawals, altered media cards that wrongfully attributed statements to diplomatic leaders, and outdated recordings that were reused to claim vote tampering. In 2024 alone, at least eight fact-checking organizations found over 3,000 distinct pieces of false information that circulated, with monthly reports almost doubling during the peak of the July–August political crisis in Bangladesh. Digital platforms also played a part, as TikTok independently disrupted influence operations and deleted over 2,358 accounts that artificially amplified pro-party narratives, while Meta removed 50 Facebook accounts and 98 pages in Bangladesh for coordinated inauthentic behavior, targeting opposition leaders and activists. Disinformation remained a significant concern ahead of Bangladesh’s February 2026 elections, with large volumes of misleading content circulating online. Most notable and provocative of narratives framing events as a “Hindu massacre” or “genocide” in Bangladesh. Originating mostly from India, the barrage of misinformation incited violence on both sides of the border, leading to a strain in diplomatic relations.
In Sri Lanka, the high volume of hate and violence inciting speech accelerated attacks on Muslim minorities in Kandy and resulted in the government temporarily shutting down Facebook, Instagram, Viber, and WhatsApp. When combined, these examples show that misinformation and disinformation in South Asia are real concerns that have already resulted in fatalities, political manipulation, and institutional crises, highlighting the critical need for regional engagement.
Energy Insecurity
Another major non-traditional security threat South Asia faces today is energy insecurity. The region faces a long-standing and deteriorating structural challenge as it continues to rely heavily on fossil fuels, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the region’s primary energy production. About two-thirds of the region’s total energy consumption still depends on imported energy. The reliance on mainly Middle Eastern energy is already proving to be devastating as extra-regional instability, such as the on-going Israel-US-Iran conflict, is hampering economies and daily lives. The region is facing intense pressure to seek alternative sources of energy with higher prices and additional expenses.
Fuel prices in Pakistan have surged up to 50 percent in some regions, triggering nationwide rationing and slowdowns in the industrial sector. Increased load-shedding has returned to Bangladesh as LNG shortages limited power generations. This is hampering both daily life and crucial industries like the export-oriented garment sector. Sri Lanka’s economy, still recovering from the economic collapse of 2022, is also at risk of losing its progress and destabilizing.
The immediate and clear impact of energy insecurity is its ability to disrupt social order and destabilize governments makes it a particularly critical non-traditional security concern. Decades of poor energy management in Pakistan caused utility bills to soar in times of crisis, even surpassing rent for many households. This significantly reduced the middle class’s purchasing power and fueled severe political unrest as tensions were redirected at the government and used as a political tool. The effects are no longer limited to the field of economics. After the ongoing Israel-US-Iran conflict caused disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz, Qatar halted all of its oil and gas deliveries to Bangladesh. This resulted in a severe shortage, panic buying and stockpiling, and the government closing all public and private universities to restrict the use of electricity.
In the region, the connection between energy shocks and political instability is becoming more evident. Mass protests in Nepal in 2025, Bangladesh in 2024, and Sri Lanka in 2022, all driven by young people with internet access, have a lot in common, including growing living expenses, unemployment, and economic vulnerability. Even after its collapse in 2022, protests over high pricing and power outages reappeared in Sri Lanka in 2024 and 2025, and the public’s discontent was still quite evident. The World Bank has also highlighted these increasing pressures, pointing out that in Bangladesh, supply constraints resulting from import restrictions and energy shortages, undermined investor confidence and weakened industrial activity. This jeopardized one of the region’s once most promising economies. Together, these incidents show that energy instability in South Asia poses a direct danger to political legitimacy, stable government, and regional peace in addition to being an economic annoyance.
Policy Recommendations
For South Asia, the challenge of tackling non-traditional threats is not straightforward, rather, it is a complicated and multifaceted issue requiring a regional approach. Governments must coordinate multilaterally on issues like misinformation and disinformation, and energy security. Regarding information, South Asian governments must invest heavily in digital literacy, and make digital literacy a national priority. Citizens must be educated on how to assess information critically. People are significantly more resilient to manipulation when they are able to critically assess what they read and share online. Governments must also push digital platforms to be more accountable for the content that circulates on their networks, especially in regional languages where moderation is still critically lacking. Building integrated early-warning systems and information-sharing channels is strongly recommended on a regional level so that governments can react together rather than separately when a disinformation campaign crosses a border.
Regarding energy security, it is imperative for governments to reevaluate energy agreements to lessen import dependency, especially from a single region or country. South Asian states must also move towards incorporating efficient renewable energy systems in all sectors, a move which is particularly difficult for South Asian states to undertake alone. Therefore the shift towards renewable energy should be a regional initiative. States should pool resources to jointly promote the adoption of renewable energy. Infrastructure, storage, and trade agreements must also be simultaneously developed.
Conclusion
South Asia is at an important juncture. The quieter, more subtle forces of misinformation and energy vulnerability, which undermine trust, fuel differences, and weaken the institutions that people rely on, pose a more immediate threat to stability rather than conventional military build-ups at borders. Recent events in the region demonstrate that these factors are not confined. Energy problems turn into political crises, and political crises turn into breeding grounds for misinformation. Strategies that address these problems separately will eventually fall short because of the fundamental links. As it stands now, South Asia needs more than simply improved national policies, it also calls for sincere intent to work together, share information, coordinate approaches, and make investments in the kind of long-term resilience that defends ordinary citizens from dangers they might not even anticipate. The window of opportunity to overcome these obstacles may be shrinking as the effects of non-traditional threats become increasingly evident. For decades to come, the region’s trajectory will be determined by whether governments rise to the occasion and make necessary adjustments both individually and collectively.