"Credibility of social media is slowly eroding now...": NSA Ajit Doval on impact, influence of social media

Speaking at the Indian Strategic Culture Book launch on on the impact and influence of social media, NSA Doval remarked on the impact and influence of social media and 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 that show total and blatant lies. This can be done by presenting some photos etc," Doval said.

He further pointed out that some posts 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 that shake the confidence of our jawans in their leadership. This needs to be strongly countered. If people from the 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 dominates the narrative," he added.

Doval encouraged immediate responses to incidents and underlined the importance of correct perspectives being established 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. Social media needs to be countered using social media. Sometimes it comes that do government should make laws on social media. Agar hum social media ke through logo ki awaaj ko ek karai, toh uska negative effect jayada hoga (If we unite the voices of people through social media, its negative impact will be more)," he added. (ANI)