New Delhi: The Central Industrial Security Force / CISF (ICSF) has issued some new guidelines in relation to the use of social media to its 1.62 lakh personnel. Under this, the workers have been directed to disclose their ‘User ID’ being used on all the forums like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, to the affiliated entity. This information has been given in an official order. The new guidelines were issued on 31 July. It has been said that those who violate these rules will have to face strict legal and disciplinary action.
The order issued by the CISF headquarters in Delhi states that two pages of guidelines are being issued from these online forums in view of the threat posed to the national security and discipline of the force. CISF currently protects 63 airports, some important assets related to airports, besides various government ministries and buildings etc. in the country. According to the essence of the guidelines, these have been issued because the force has found some instances where CISF personnel are using social media forums to share sensitive information about the nation/organization and oppose the policies of the government.
5 points assigned to CISF personnel
The new guidelines set five points for compliance with CISF personnel, which are ‘the personnel using their own user IDs on all social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, through the respective units. The department will have to disclose it. It is stated in the guidelines, ‘In case of any change in the user ID or making it new, they must inform the department about this.’
It states that the workers will not use user IDs by anonymous or pseudonym and they will not use these online forums to ‘criticize the government policies in any way’. The guidelines said, “Social media platforms will not be used to ignore hierarchy or appropriate means to express their grievances.” The social media use policy in force was first introduced in 2016 and it was amended in 2019.
