Srinagar: Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) on Wednesday termed the government’s decision to bar workforce from using social media as “injustice” and against the “constitutional spirit”.
“The ban on use of social media by government is against fundamental rights. The constitution has given right of freedom of expression and speech to everybody irrespective of caste, creed, sex and religion and it is against the constitutional spirit and is injustice,” EJAC president Qayoom Wani said.
He said that EJAC will sit together and decide about action to be taken on “legal front as well as on organisational level.”
“We believe that any employee who uses social media against government can be dealt with law as provided in CSR but it does not mean that you by imposing a blanket ban can deny five lakh employees freedom of speech and expression,” he said and “condemned” it.
The state government on Tuesday barred its employees from any political activity or endorsing the posts, tweets or blogs of any political figure on social media.
As per a detailed notification issued here by the government, the employees have been also asked not to engage in any criminal, dishonest, immoral or notoriously disgraceful conduct on social media which may be prejudicial to the Government.
“They shall also not use their accounts in a manner that could reasonably be construed to imply that the Government endorses or sanctions their personal activities in any matter whatsoever,” the government said.
The employee, it said, shall also not post inflammatory, extraneous messages in an online community with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on topic discussion.
On internet trolling, all employees on social media have been asked to exhibit decent and reasonable behaviour and “must not be part of trolling on social media i.e, not to sow discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a news-group, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion.
