Indian Navy bans Facebook, use of smart phones at naval bases
In an order to avoid the leaking of sensitive information to the enemy intelligence, the Indian Navy on Monday has decided to ban the use of smartphones and other social media applications at the naval bases, docks and warships. The “stringent” step has been taken by the force soon after seven naval personnel were caught leaking sensitive information to enemy intelligence agencies over social media. The Navy announced in its decision that bans on messaging apps, networking and blogging, content sharing, hosting, e-commerce sites are under promulgation. The personnel accused of leaking sensitive information were arrested in Andhra Pradesh with the help of the central intelligence. The seven Navy personnel, including a hawala operator, were accused of leaking confidential information related to naval vessels and submarines. According to the information, the entire racket was connected to Pakistan along with the several other countries. Indian Navy sources stated that "Latest orders are in line with ensuring the security of information. Banning of Facebook for officers and sailors of Indian Navy is in same lines. Recent incident involving seven sailors has also been taken into consideration while arriving at this decision." "We do understand that this may come at the cost of some discomfort, however the decision is in the larger national Interest. Directives on usage of social media and smart phones for Indian Navy personnel have existed before," it added. https://www.ptcnews.tv/indian-navy-day-sukhbir-singh-badal-harsimrat-kaur-badal-salute-naval-officers/ Among the accused, three sailors are from Eastern Naval Command of Visakhapattanam, three are from Western Naval Command and one was stationed at Karwar naval base of Karnataka. All the accused personnel were new recruits who joined the Navy after 2015. Indian Navy is mulling over building 24 submarines, including six nuclear attack submarines. Meanwhile, INS Arihant and INS Chakra are the two nuclear submarines of India. -PTC News
