E-Paper
Social media: Dos and don’ts issued for U.P. Police
In charge of UP police social cell, additional superintendent of police (ASP) Rahul Srivastava said the recently issued social media policy for police officers had been revised taking cognizance of massive use of social media platforms by police personnel
Lucknow Use of social media during duty hours is banned for UP police and making video clips, sharing dancing moves in police uniform or in civvies and sharing confidential information related to policing and police force has been completely restricted under the UP police social media policy-2023 issued by the state police headquarters here on Wednesday.
In charge of UP police social cell, additional superintendent of police (ASP) Rahul Srivastava said the recently issued social media policy for police officers had been revised taking cognizance of massive use of social media platforms by police personnel. He said their posts often triggered controversy that attracted action against them. The social media policy was first issued by UP police in 2017 and later revised in 2018 but the recent revised policy was issued in a detailed manner after a gap of five years.
The ASP said the social media policy would apply to police personnel of all ranks. The instructions issued by the cadre control authority of union home ministry related to social media use for IPS officers would also be followed by the personnel.
He said there were provisions of stern action against police personnel as per the violation done by them.
The ASP said there were as many 26 points in the revised social media policy that mostly included ban on posts that maligned the image of the police force or defamed anybody.
The ASP said the policy also restricted any live telecast of training process or any complainant or victim. The policy also suggested that s police officers must not share photographs of victims of rape or any sexual crime or of minors involved in crime.
Some other important points of the policy are:
Cops must restrain from making any post on social media that hurts religious sentiments or is against any caste or community.
The policy also restrains police officers from sharing their pictures on social media along with any person who has a criminal background.
Cops are directed to share pictures of criminals on social media after blurring them. Such pics are often shared after media briefing of any good work by police officers.
The policy also restrains relatives of police officers from sharing pictures of police uniform or firearms issued to them by the government on social media.
Police officers are prohibited to share pictures of personal events on social media.
In the new policy cops have also been restrained from displaying profile pictures on their social media accounts which is in support or opposition of any political party or incident.
The new policy also clearly points out that police officers will not join WhatsApp group which propagates messages against the state government or police force.
Cops have also been prohibited to log into government social media accounts from their personal mobile numbers. Only CUG numbers issued by the police department will be used for this purpose.
Cops have also been restrained from taking part in any online voting without prior approval from the authorities concerned.
Cops can use social media accounts in such a manner that it does not violates U.P. Government Servant’s Conduct Rules, 1956 (Amendment 1998, 2002).
