J&K government unveils social media conduct code for employees

24 March 2023

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Srinagar, Mar 24: 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.

But the guidelines allow employees to defend and explain to the public the policy of the government through their social media posts. “An employee may, for the purpose or removing misapprehensions, correcting misstatements, and refuting disloyal and seditious propaganda, defend and explain to the public the policy of Government in his posts and tweets on social media,” it said, adding that employees shall not post on social media, any such content or comments about co-workers or individuals, that are vulgar, obscene, threatening, intimidating or that violate the conduct rules of employees.

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 employees shall not indulge in sharing/partaking in so-called giveaways and contests on social media platforms, which are actually scams in disguise, as they could unknowingly spread malware or trick people into giving away sensitive data by sharing it on their profiles, “the government further said.

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.

“All administrative secretaries, deputy commissioners, heads of departments, managing directors shall immediately proceed against the employees working in their departments/offices who are found to have violated the aforesaid guidelines and rules, in terms of the relevant disciplinary framework,” the government said.

“Further, in case of a violation committed on a group platform, the ‘administrator’, if they are serving government/semi-government employees, shall also be liable for disciplinary proceedings,” the government said.

—(KNO)