Srinagar: The administration of Jammu & Kashmir on Friday unveiled guidelines regarding the use of social media by government employees in the Union Territory.
According to guidelines, no employee shall, through any post, tweet or otherwise, discuss or criticize on social media, any policy pursued or action taken by the government, nor shall he/she, in any manner, participate in any such discussion or criticism on social media pages communities/microblogs.
The guidelines state that no 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 or in the Union territory,” the guidelines further state.
According to the government, the 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.
The employees have also been directed that they not pass any official document or any part thereof to any employee or any such person to whom he is not authorized to communicate such document or information.
The employees have also been directed that they shall not post grievances pertaining to their workplace on social media in the form of videos, posts, tweets or blogs or in any other form, but will follow the already established channels of complaint redressal existing in the departments.
The government said that violation of these guidelines/rules shall tantamount to misconduct and invite disciplinary action against the delinquent official under the relevant rules.
