Online narrative over sinking of Iranian ship raises misinformation concerns: Report
New Delhi: The false narrative circulating on social media about the sinking of the Iranian ship IRIS Dena by the US, which participated in the International Fleet Review (IFR) and Milan 2026, hosted by the Indian Navy off Visakhapatnam, underscores the need to monitor online discourse and effectively counter damaging information, a report said on Thursday.
“Excessive attention to the fact that IRIS Dena was returning from IFR at Visakhapatnam and use of phrases like ‘it was a guest of India’, ‘it happened in India’s backyard’, ‘the US did not take the bad optics into consideration’, ‘the US should have kept India in the loop’, ‘the sailors from Dena had engaged in friendly interactions’ ‘Dena was not armed’ etc seem to have attempted to somehow make India responsible in some way for this incident, while conveniently forgetting that the US and Iran are at war,” T S V Ramana, a former Indian Navy Officer, wrote in an article for Politeia Research Foundation.
He noted that the March 4 strike by the US Navy SSN on Dena, involving a Mk 48 Torpedo followed by the release of the periscope photographs and videos of the attack, triggered widespread debate on legal, moral, humanitarian, diplomatic niceties, and sensitivities.
“The most significant lesson from this incident is that assessment of the strategic situation in the vicinity of one’s own country, and also in the vicinity of the areas where one’s warships would operate in the near future, has to be a 24x7x365-day affair. One cannot be caught by surprise, either due to a lack of necessary intelligence or, more dangerously, due to ignoring that intelligence,” Ramana mentioned.
“For a warship, there is no such thing as a ‘ceremonial role’; even when on diplomatic or ceremonial missions, it is always prepared for war,” he added.
According to the report, although such tragedies evoke strong emotions, warships are designed to face danger, and dedicated naval professionals must not rely on sentiment.
“There were attempts to state that the Indian Navy should have been aware of the deployment of the US SSN, thereby implying that it should have been monitoring every activity in the IOR, 24x7x365 days. It is clear that the people making such statements have no idea of the sheer size and complexity of the maritime domain, where nothing is ever static,” the former Indian Navy officer stated.