The J&K administration on Sunday issued fresh guidelines regarding the use of social media by its employees, saying no government employee should, through any post, tweet or other means, discuss or criticise any government policy or action on social media platforms. It said employees were prohibited from participating in any such discussion or criticism on social media pages, communities or microblogs.
“The government employees, directly or indirectly, shall not publish, post or release any information on social media that is considered confidential or that is not meant for public dissemination, nor shall they pass any official document or any part thereof to any government employee or any such person to whom he is not authorised to communicate such document or information,” the circular says.
“No government employee shall post, tweet or share content that is political or anti-secular and communal in nature or subscribe to pages, communities or twitter handles and blogs of such nature. No employee shall himself/herself or through any person dependent on him/her for maintenance, or under his care or control, undertake any such activity on social media which is, or tends directly or indirectly to be, subversive of the government as by law established in the country on in the UT,” the circular reads.
However, it says a government employee may, for the purpose or removing misapprehensions, correcting mis-statements, and refuting disloyal and seditious propaganda, defend and explain to the public the policy of the government in his posts and tweets on social media.
The circular also bars the employees from posting online any grievances and vulgar, obscene, threatening or intimidating content against co-workers or individuals that violate the conduct rules or employees.
Violation of these guidelines and rules shall tantamount to misconduct and invite disciplinary action against the delinquent official under the relevant rules, the circular mentioned, adding that the guidelines are not intended to dissuade employees, departments from using social media for positive and constructive purposes.
