Overview
- Army Headquarters, through the DGMI, issued the order with immediate effect, permitting passive viewing on Instagram, X, YouTube and Quora while prohibiting posts, comments, shares, reactions or direct messages.
- WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal and Skype may be used only to exchange unclassified, general information with known contacts, with users responsible for verifying recipients.
- LinkedIn use is confined to professional purposes such as uploading résumés and checking employer or employee information.
- The directive reiterates bans on VPNs, torrent sites, cracked software, anonymous web proxies and similar tools, and urges caution with cloud-based storage.
- Officials describe the approach as balancing awareness with discipline under the Army Chief’s “Respond, Don’t React” guidance, with violations treated as breaches of military rules following tightened controls since 2020.