Indian Army personnel can now use Instagram. But, it comes with riders

(File photo)

The Indian Army has amended its social media policy, allowing the personnel to have access to Instagram, but strictly in a view-only mode.

The soldiers and officers will continue to be barred from any form of interaction and will not be allowed to post, like or comment like other generic social media users.

The personnel have been granted access with the aim to allow them to view and monitor content on social media for their own awareness and information gathering, sources were cited as saying by NDTV.

The Army has described the permitted access as "passive participation", making it clear that engagement of any kind is not allowed.

However, soldiers will be able to flag fake or misleading posts that they find to senior officers. Similar restrictions continue to apply to other platforms such as YouTube and X, which are also allowed only for passive consumption, according to a report by India Today.

The Indian Army has periodically issued guidelines on using social media platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram. Restrictions were previously imposed on their use for security reasons.

Till 2019, army personnel were not allowed to be part of any social media group. Following several cases of social media misuse, the army tightened the rules in 2020 and instructed soldiers to delete 89 mobile apps, including Facebook and Instagram.

However, despite strict regulations, the army has allowed the use of some platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Quora, Telegram, and WhatsApp, albeit with stringent rules and monitoring.