Keep off controversy in social media, J&K employees told

The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday issued an order to restrict and prevent its employees from engaging in social media sites in a manner that can be prejudicial to the interests of the administration.

A notification issued by the state's General Administration Department in winter capital Jammu said: "No government employee shall engage in any criminal, dishonest, immoral or notoriously disgraceful conduct on social media which may be prejudicial to the government."

"They shall also not use their personal social media accounts for any political activity or endorse the posts or tweets or blogs of any political figure and also shall not use their accounts in a manner that could reasonably be construed to imply that the government endorsed or sanctioned their personal activities in any manner whatsoever."

The notification said it in no unclear terms that "they shall not post inflammatory, extraneous messages in an online community with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on topic discussion".

The order is an attempt by the state government to prevent its employees from engaging in any social or political debate in social media that might paint the authorities in bad light.

--IANS

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