New Delhi, 25 December 2025 , Indian Army The Indian Army has made a major change in its social media policy for security and maintenance of secret information in the digital age. According to the new order, now army personnel and officers will be able to use Instagram, but it will be limited to ‘monitoring’ (Jowa) only. A strict ban on posting, liking or commenting on any photo-video is still in place.
- New rules come into effect from December 23
According to the order issued by the Army Military Intelligence Wing, this new rule has come into effect with immediate effect from 23 December 2025. The main purpose behind this change is to keep an eye on fake news and misleading content. If any soldier sees suspicious or anti-national post on social media, he should immediately inform the higher authorities.
- What can be done and what cannot be done?
The Army has described the use of social media as ‘passive participation’. Only information can be seen on platforms like Instagram, X, YouTube, Quora. Uploading of any type of User Content is prohibited. WhatsApp & Telegram can be used for general and non-confidential communication. Contact can be maintained only with known persons on Telegram. LinkedIn can be used only for uploading resumes or job information, but prior approval is mandatory for that.
Many incidents have come to light in the past in which foreign intelligence agencies have tried to extract sensitive information from Indian soldiers through fake profiles and ‘honey traps’. To avoid this risk, the Army had earlier banned 89 apps including Facebook and Instagram in 2020. Now, for the purpose of monitoring, these rules have been relaxed and some restrictions have been imposed.
The Army has warned jawans to stay away from certain risky digital activities, which include pirated software and free movie sites, torrents and unknown chat rooms and VPN software and web proxies. Also, instructions have been given to use cloud storage sites carefully.
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