The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) has formed a “Social Media Monitoring Committee” to monitor the social media activities of officials and employees under its jurisdiction.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Wing of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education issued the directive yesterday (17 August).

The committee will monitor compliance with government social media guidelines and require officials to report offensive, misleading, false or directive-violating content that could undermine discipline or the institution’s image.

Professor Tipu Sultan, director of the Monitoring and Evaluation Wing, has been appointed convener of the committee.

According to the notice, government officials and employees must strictly comply with the Cabinet Division’s “Guidelines for Using Social Media in Government Institutions, 2019 (Revised Edition)” and the government code of conduct.

The committee will monitor compliance with these guidelines and identify violations involving social media statuses, comments, pictures, videos, posts or other content, according to the statement.

“If any such content comes to their attention, officials have been instructed to preserve the material and report it to the committee convener on a priority basis,” it adds.

The report must include the official’s name, designation, workplace, social media platform, account or profile link, publication date and time, screenshots and other relevant evidence.

The information is to be sent to the committee convener at [email protected].

Copies of the directive have been sent to all directors, regional directors, principals, senior system analysts and the personal assistant to the director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education.