Government employees will no longer be able to use social media platforms to evert expose of official documents and sensitive information. A notice issued by the Establishment Division on August 25 says not any employee can use social media platforms without the permission of the government. The Establishment Division gave detailed instructions to government employees under Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1964, governing participation of government servants in different media forums including social media platforms for compliance. The notification added “Rule 18 of the Rules bars a government servant from sharing official information or documents with a government servant or a private person or press.” The notification highlighted that the government employees commonly used social media such as websites and applications that enabled users to create and share content or participate in social networking sites. “They, while using different social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Whats-app, Instagram, Micro-blogging etc, to air their views on a host of subjects and sometimes indulge in actions or behaviour that does not conform to the required standards of official conduct, as envisaged in the Rules,” the notification added.