Social media directives issued for public servants

The government has issued a social media guideline for its employees, encouraging them to use it for highlighting achievements at work, but remaining mindful of service conduct rules.

The directive has been issued by the Cabinet Division and rewards have been offered for the best posts, comments and for opening pages that become popular either in highlighting the government's achievements or for tackling civic issues.

The directive said that 42 percent of the global population use the internet and 29 percent of them use social media sites.

Almost 80 percent internet users in Bangladesh are using social media sites. More than 800 government offices already use social media sites.

The directive outlines ways for ensuring an effective use of social media in government organisations, the dos and don’ts for public servants using social media.

It also asks that maximum security be ensured while using social media tools.

According to the guidelines, government offices will be able to use social media for internal communications, public awareness, providing citizen services as well ensuring citizens’ participation in policymaking.

The directive asks offices to appoint an individual or form a 3 to 5 member moderator panel to operate pages on social media.

The guideline, however, does not give instructions over maintaining public servants’ personal accounts on social media, but asks them to be responsible.

It asks offices to ensure their pages are updated at least twice every week and cautions against uploading contents against national unity or spreading hatred towards any community, either religious or ethnic.

The directive asks offices to evaluate their social media usage every three months.

In November last year, the Cabinet Division issued an order directing government officials to ‘act responsibly’ while using social media.

It had asked field level officials not to post anything ‘personal’ on Facebook.