Indian Government Asks Army to get off Facebook

Earlier this week, TV media was reporting of how 4 naval officers leaked confidential information on social networking sites divulging information about the location of warships and other confidential data etc.

The four officers were being tracked for quite some time by naval authorities for allegedly leaking confidential information, including location of warships, armaments being carried by them and their patrolling patterns (source) and now, government is reported to have issued orders asking all its men, officers and other ranks, who had joined social networking sites like Facebook or Orkut earlier to immediately quit them.

Similar incident happened in 2009 when government advised army to stay away from social networking sites and even banned social networking sites/ picture sharing sites for Indian diplomats.

“The Army’s worry is that public access to such information could increase the vulnerabilities of both the Army and its personnel. Some information could provide clues to the Army’s strategies. It could also make personnel more vulnerable to things like honeytraps (spies using sex to extract information)”.

Incidentally, Indian Prime Minster joined Twitter 2 days back.
Indian Government Asks Army to get off Facebook

Banning or curbing social media could become a major demotivating factor for youth aspiring to join the Army at all levels
This very important aspect is actually a point currently not even on our radar. We must find a practical and balanced solution in consonance with the times which would not only ensure personal freedom but also hands-on adherence to security requirements. If social media is taken as an enemy of security then so could be normal day to day human interaction, all types of computing devices and mobiles. Would be, or could we ban those too? Posted by Navdeep / Maj Navdeep Singh
Read More: Social media and the Armed Forces : Need to refrain from knee-jerk reactions