National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Friday pressed for robust counter-narrative measures on social media to safeguard the morale of defence forces, noting the credibility of social media is slowly eroding.
Speaking at the Indian Strategic Culture Book Launch in New Delhi, Doval said that social media needs to be countered using social media.
"Social media needs to be countered using social media...The credibility of social media is slowly eroding now. You should focus on searching and exposing stories on social media which show total and blatant lies. This can be done by presenting some photos etc," he said.
He mentioned that some posts on social media about the Indian Army contain inaccuracies that could affect the confidence of defence personnel in their leadership.
"Some posts on social media about the Indian Army could lower the morale of our Defence Forces. Sometimes they write things which shake the confidence of our jawans in their leadership. This needs to be strongly countered," he said.
"f people from Defence Forces can do it, then it is good. You should become the first respondents on social media when any incident happens. It has been seen that when any incident occurs, the trash that starts comes within 4 hours of the incident dominating the narrative...If a correct perspective comes on social media within a few hours then it is useful...There is no lack of patriots and nationalists in the country," he added.
The NSA encouraged immediate responses to incidents and highlighted establishing a correct perspective early in the public discourse.
"If a correct perspective comes on social media within a few hours then it is useful. There is no lack of patriots and nationalists in the country. They do write on social media," he remarked.