Government to introduce new social media policy; set to check misuse, anti-national propaganda

New Delhi: The government is finalising a policy which is aimed at keeping a hawk’s eye vigil on the social media to check if it is being “misused” to conspire against India and spread anti-national propaganda.

A meeting was held today among representatives of central security agencies and the home ministry to discuss various issues related to it, officials sources said. At present, there is only a set of “do’s and don’ts” for the social media which needs to be graduated to a full-fledged guidelines that should be adopted on such a network.

The move assumes significance as there have been instances where terrorists were found to be using social media to conspire against the country or to propagate anti-India materials. There have also been instances where rumours spread on the social media had resulted in violence and tense situation in different parts of the country.

The misuse of social media is more challenging especially with reference to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, they said. The stake holders are discussing ways to finalise a policy to help intelligence agencies and security forces effectively deal with any propaganda, the sources said. The infrastructure requirements like manpower and technological needs for monitoring of the social media are also being finalised, they said.

Besides this, the ministry is also looking for the ways to reach out to people using social media in case of disaster or for public service delivery, they added.