MoD publishes Twitter guidelines for forces personnel

Soldiers are warned not to discuss operational activities

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has published guidelines for armed forces personnel who want to make use of social media such as Facebook or Twitter to tell people about their activities.

"The aim of this guidance is to enable service and MoD personnel to make full use of online presences while protecting their own, service, and departmental interests, and to enable commanders and communicators to harness this to communicate defence," says the guideline document.

The MoD strategy aims to improve public engagement with and knowledge of the activites of the armed forces. It separates online presences into “corporate”, “sponsored” and “personal” ones.

The MoD will continue to operate a small number of corporate online presences with the aim of communicating the official overall strategy of the defence forces.

Commanders, with media and communications staff, are encouraged to foster or identify suitable “sponsored” official presences, using material generated at grass-roots by individuals and units, and published after appropriate clearance and oversight.

Civilian service and MoD personnel are also encouraged to operate “sponsored” online presences to help communicate their work as long as these are authorised in advance by the MoD.

Finally, service and MOD civilian personnel may operate personal online presences without command oversight, but are required to follow certain guidelines.

While they are encouraged to use social media to get family, friends and the general public more engaged with their activities, they are warned not to discuss operational matters or offer opinions on the activities of the armed forces.

They are also warned about attempts to speak on behalf of their service of the MoD, and told they should always seek the advice of superiors if in doubt.

And they should think carefully about openly publishing personal details as they could be used by hostile intelligence agencies or terrorists to target personnel and their families.