The Israeli military on Monday issued a new directive seeking to regulate soldiers' social media behavior.
Titled "IDF Soldiers' Use of the Cybersphere," the directive prohibits soldiers from posting comments on political, diplomatic and military issues on their private social media profiles or in groups they follow, and bars them from "liking" or commenting on pages managed by politicians or parties.
The orders further and explicitly bar soldiers from uploading any type of classified material to social media websites.
This is the first time the IDF is regulating soldiers' social media behavior, after years in which the military's directives and enforcement of the issue were unclear.
The new directive "seeks to set guidelines for soldiers' behavior while using the cybersphere and especially social media, in accordance with human dignity, military values and the restrictions all soldiers must adhere to given information security needs and the need to protect the personal safety of all uniformed personnel," the military said.
"Unbecoming online conduct, which does not coincide with military values or infringes on human dignity has a negative effect on the IDF's public image and perception. Moreover, posting classified information online could compromise national security.
"Violating these orders can, under certain circumstances, lead to disciplinary and even criminal action against soldiers," the IDF said.
The new directive does include some exceptions, such as allowing soldiers to "follow" political figures or groups for monitoring purposes, according to their professional assignments.
Orders also demand that soldiers who believe any individual or entity have contacted them online for the purpose of deriving classified information, report the issue immediately to their unit's information security officer.
An IDF official explained that the decision to issue the new directive stemmed from several reasons, primarily repeated attempts by terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to dupe soldiers into giving them classified information online.
As for the political aspects of the new order, he explained that "there are some things soldiers cannot do online for the mere fact that they are in uniform. Soldiers can't express an opinion on political, controversial or sensitive matters."
Another officer clarified that soldiers who subscribed to politicians' social media pages prior to enlisting are not required to unfollow them, but are prohibited from actively participating in conversations or activities on these pages.
