The Indian Army has revised the social media policy for all of its personnel, allowing ‘passive participation’ on a selected group of social media platforms, according to a report by The Hindu.
The Army Headquarters issued these revised social media guidelines through its Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI). For context, Indian Army officers can now use platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for ‘viewing and monitoring content’.
Importantly, this move allows Indian Army soldiers to stay informed online without exposing themselves or their units to any vulnerabilities that can potentially have national security implications.
Even as Indian Army soldiers can now access Meta-owned Instagram, they are strictly barred from any form of active engagement such as posting, commenting, sharing, reacting, or sending messages on the platform. Notably similar guidelines apply for X (formerly Twitter).
Similarly, the Indian Army has only permitted passive use or access for platforms such as YouTube and Quora, and that too for only gaining knowledge or information. Uploading user-generated content or engaging in any type of active participation on these social media platforms remains prohibited.
The Indian Army’s new social media policy also advises soldiers to avoid visiting generic websites, portals that offer cracked or pirated software, torrent and VPN services, free movie platforms, web proxies, chat rooms and file-sharing platforms, etc. The new policy also cautions that Indian Army officers must use cloud-based data storage platforms with extreme care.
Notably, Meta-owned social media platform Facebook still remains totally out of bounds for Indian Army personnel.
Meanwhile, the Indian Army has allowed soldiers to use LinkedIn for professional purposes, such as uploading their resumes or soliciting information about potential employers or employees.
Furthermore, soldiers can still use communication platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and Skype. However, the caveat is that they must only use these platforms to exchange ‘unclassified information of a general nature’.
Additionally, the Indian Army permits such communication with only known individuals, and the responsibility of verifying a message’s recipient lies solely with the user.
In July 2020, the Indian Army asked its personnel to delete 89 applications from their phones in light of rising tensions with China following the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020.
This directive came as a bid to prevent leakage of sensitive information carrying national security implications from the mobile phones of Indian Army soldiers.
Back then, the Army instructed soldiers to delete dating applications such as Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, as well as Truecaller and TikTok, among others.
However, soldiers could use social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and YouTube as long as they did not reveal their army background on these platforms.
Since at present Indian army personnel can use apps like WhatsApp and Signal to exchange ‘unclassified information of a general nature’ with known individuals, and the responsibility of verifying the recipient’s identity lies solely with the sender, these communication platforms remain the Achilles heel for the Indian Army.
To explain, operatives of foreign intelligence agencies still have the option of using such apps – that come equipped with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) – to interact with Indian Army officials and lay out a honey trap.
For context, back in 2018 intelligence agencies had asked Central Ministries – including the Defence Ministry – to remain alert to honey traps set up by foreign agencies to target personnel who deal with sensitive information.
Meanwhile, from a judicial standpoint, the Delhi High Court (HC) ruled in August 2020 that the judicial review scope for defence and security-related matters is limited. The court gave this verdict while dismissing a petition that challenged the ban on Indian Army officers using social media platforms.
The Delhi HC stated in its verdict that restrictions on social media use of Indian Army officers were an outcome of the paradigm shift in the activities of hostile nations’ intelligence agencies, the rising popularity of numerous social media platforms, and the vulnerability of unsuspecting armed forces personnel.
Furthermore, the court noted that warfare and inter-country rivalries today are not merely confined to territorial accession. It said that in the present day and age, warfare also extends to influencing and affecting the economies as well as the political stability of enemy countries, including inciting civil unrest and influencing the political will of citizens.
As such, the Delhi HC said that it would not interfere if the government has concluded that defence personnel using certain social media apps enable enemy countries to gain an edge over India.