KARWAR: A naval base in Karnataka has directed its staff especially the civilian staff not to use social media. The navy has already banned the use of smart phones in the naval base recently.
An order directing the Seabird Naval base staff to stay off from the about 15 social media apps has been issued, where the staff has been asked to submit in writing that they do not have any such account as well as well they should delete it incase they have such an account.
Accordingly, the staff has been asked to delete accounts of Facebook, Instagram. WeChat, Snapchat, Tinder, Bumble, LinkedIn, Tiktok, Pinterest, Tumblr, Ok Cupid, Renren, Weibo, Momo and Shareit.
Accordingly, the order dated January 6, 2020 under the title ‘Undertaking by the naval/ civilian personnel’ also seeks to declare that the staff will not join any of these social media apps or groups without prior intimation.
The circular has come in the wake following detaining of a few naval staff from Vishakapatnam as well as Karwar naval base by the central intelligence wing, naval intelligence and police from Andhra Pradesh earlier this month. They were alleged of leaking information to Pakistani based secret agencies. "Following this there were lots of dos and don’ts issued to the naval staff. A mistake even if it is done by ignorance is a mistake,” a naval source said.
However official sources neither confirmed or denied the information. "The Eastern Naval Command has already banned the use of some social media accounts. We need to check about what has happened here," an official source told Express.
However, as a first step in this regard, the Seabird naval base has already banned the use of smart phones here. "We have already banned the use of smart phones here. It is because of the smart phones that these people would take picture and share them," said the sources. This has led to the recent increase in sale of ordinary phones without cameras and smart phone features in Karwar.