Soldiers Should Take Advantage Of Social Media & AI Says Army Chief Rawat

At this age & time, almost all have access to social media and smartphones. And like all things smartphones & social media has its boons & vices.

Recently, the Indian Army was banned from using the social media after officials were honey-trapped by the terrorists.

But Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat had slammed the policy stating that social media should be used to the Army’s advantages.

“We have received advice that we should advise our soldiers to stay away from social media. Can you deny a soldier from the possession of a smart-phone? If you can’t prevent usage of smartphone, it is best to allow it (access to social media),” he told the media.

However, General Bipin Rawat also said that it was “important to have means of imposing discipline” among the soldiers. He said, “Social media is here to stay. Soldiers will use social media. Our adversary will use social media for psychological warfare and deception. We must leverage it to our advantage.”

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“In modern-day warfare, info-warfare is important and within it, we have started talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI). If we have to leverage AI to our advantage, we must engage through social media as a lot of what we wish to gain as part of AI will come via social media,” General Bipin Rawat said.

The social media policy for the jawans came under sharp scanner when a Lieutenant Colonel posted at Jabalpur was honey-trapped by Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.

The defence ministry guidelines for the soldiers say that they should not:

• watch porn on Facebook/social networking sites
• use photo in uniform as a profile pic on WhatsApp/Facebook
• click advertisements on social sites alluring for prizes/awards
• expose official identity on such sites
• upload pictures with a weapon on such sites even in civil uniform
• reveal their rank, unit name and location or anything related to your work
• accept a friend request from unknowns
• allow family members to post/mention their profession on sites
• post any picture with anything related to the military as background
• store/ save any information related to the military in computer/laptops