Request Army officials to follow guidelines while using social media: MoD

The Indian Army on Thursday requested its officials to follow the guidelines strictly while using social media accounts after the government and security agencies took action against the fake accounts running in the names of serving and retired personnel.

"There have been increased attacks on accounts of serving and retired Army persons. I would request Army officials to follow guidelines and not put details or pictures which can help the adversary," the official spokesperson of the Army, Colonel Aman Anand said.

"Government has taken steps against the fake social media accounts of serving and retired officers and many of them have been suspended," Anand added.

Earlier today, the Indian Army and other security agencies began taking strict action against the fake Twitter handle of senior Indian military leadership created by Pakistani agencies to spread misinformation about the country after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A.

"More than 200 Twitter handles of senior officials including Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had been created by the Pakistani spy agencies and their operatives. We have complained against them and a large number of them have been suspended now," Army sources said today.

The accounts had been formed and activated soon after the withdrawal of special status to Jammu and Kashmir and had been tweeting entirely cooked up information to suit the narrative of Pakistan about the situation in the Kashmir Valley, they said.

The officers in whose names the handles had been created include Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, former Vice Chief Lt Gen Devraj Anbu and former Central Army Commander Lt Gen BS Negi apart from several other fake accounts of Indian Army officers using their pics available in social media or other places.

Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Shrikant Purohit's name was also used to create an account.

"Some of the accounts were spreading so much misinformation that Twitter suspended them at a notice of 15-20 minutes and more than 50 such ids have already been suspended," the sources said.