By Raqib Hameed Naik, Twocircles.net
Srinagar: A move which is seen as first of its kind in any Indian state, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday issued a circular asking WhatsApp news groups to register themselves at the office of District Magistrate.
The circular further restrains Government employees from making any remark with regard to the policies and designs of the government on WhatsApp groups.
The move, according to the government, is intended at checking the rumour-mongering that has taken the netizens by surprise.
The order was issued by District Magistrate of Kupwara, where five unarmed civilians were killed by security forces last week.
“It is impressed upon all the administrators of WhatsApp news groups of the district to get the registration of their WhatsApp news group in the office of the undersigned within 10 days,” reads the circular issued by District magistrate.
“Government employees serving in the district are directed to restrain from making any comment/ remark with regard to the policies and designs of the government on these WhatsApp groups running in the district and if anyone is found involved in such activities strict action will be initiated against them as required under rules,” the circular said.
Additional District Informatics officer Kupwara has been appointed as in charge of District social media center for registering the groups.
“Group administrators of each group will be responsible for all the post on their groups and for any irresponsible remarks deals leading to untoward incident will be dealt under law,” reads the circular.
Importantly, the state government move came after WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption at all times ensuring that users’ messages, videos, photos sent over WhatsApp can’t be read by anyone else — not WhatsApp; not cyber-criminals; not even law-enforcement agencies.
The Divisional Commissioner Dr Asgar Samoon during meeting with the Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir division through video conferencing on Monday had promulgated the latest measures to curb rumour mongering and had directed the operators of social media news agencies to obtain proper permission from the concerned Deputy Commissioners for posting news on social media news groups along with sources.
The Div Com had also asked the Department of Information to involve media fraternity to help in monitoring of the news posted on the social media.