On Friday, the government of Jammu and Kashmir issued a special notification barring all the government employees of the Union Territory from criticizing the government or engaging in any discussion against the government over social media. The authorities stated that no such discussion or criticism shall be conducted by government employees on social media pages, communities or microblogs.
According to the notification, any govt employee who would violate the directions shall be charged with the Information Technology Act, The Jammu and Kashmir Government Employees (Conduct) Rules, 1971 and the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) rules, 1956.
J&K Govt issues guidelines regarding the use of social media by the Govt Employees of UT of J&K
— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2023
No Govt employee shall, through any post, tweet or otherwise, discuss or criticize on social media, any policy pursued or action taken by the Govt, nor shall he/she, in any manner,… pic.twitter.com/Mzt1OvxR6x
The direction further asks the government employees to stop posting or sharing any content that is political or anti-secular and communal in nature. It also asks them not to follow or subscribe to pages, communities, Twitter handles and blogs that share or post political or anti-secular content.
“No government employee shall publish in his name or any other person’s name an opinion that might create embarrassment between the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, Government of India or Government of any other state. No opinion shall be criticism of any policy or action of the state or national government,” the notification reads.
It adds that any government employee found posting illegal content on social media shall be liable to imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years with fine under the IT Act. Also, the employee may face the risk of pre-mature retirement or lower increments or demotion to lower post under the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) rules, 1956.
As per the official statement, the notification applies to all the government employees of the UT using any social media platform like Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram or any other Instant messaging application.
