The Indian Army has asked its officers and jawans to immediately delete their Facebook accounts. It has also barred them from using 88 other apps, including PUBG and Instagram.
Blogging sites Reddit, Tumbir and news apps like DailyHunt, too, cannot be used by army personnel.
In music apps, Hungama and Songs.pk have been barred. Among the apps which have been banned are Zoom, True Caller, Nimbuzz, Line, Helo and Snow.
Among the apps which have been barred are some Indian applications like Hike messenger, which was founded by Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal’s son Kavin Mittal.
“As far as Facebook is concerned, army personnel are required to not just deactivate their accounts but to delete them altogether,” said a senior army official.
The Army could take action against any personnel found to be using these banned apps from July 15. This is the strictest warning sent by the army to its personnel at a time when foreign spies have been using apps for espionage purposes said army sorces .
Army personnel will also not be allowed to use the popular dating app Tinder to prevent honey traps by foreign spies.
Other dating apps which have been barred are TrulyMadly, Happn, okCupid, Badoo, Elite Singles and Couch Surfing among others. Seventeen e-commerce apps have also been banned, including AliExpress.
The list also includes some of the 59 Chinese apps like TikTok, WeChat, Beauty Plus and UC Browser, which have already been banned by the government.
Army Sources confirmed that they had asked its personnel to avoid accepting friend requests from unknown people, avoid suspicious websites and not to take calls from or chat with unidentified people.
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Social media micro bloggers criticised Modi led centre government Social media block such as Facebook and Twitter citing this displays BJP ruled government afraid of growing dissent against its poor management of corona virus and failure of Modi’s appeasement policy towards china getting nakedly exposed as days passes by .
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