Do we need to debate government use of social media?

In an embarrassment to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya accused the Narendra Modi government of "violating" existing law by using Facebook as an official account.

His accusation came on a day when almost 5 million combinations of Gmail addresses and passwords were posted online. Some security experts said the addresses seemed to have been taken from websites where users give Gmail addresses to register.
Govindacharya referred to a recent tender by the ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) for appointment of consultants who could get 5 lakh users to the ministry's social media account. "This alone will generate more than Rs 350 crore to Facebook and annual income of more than Rs 5 crore," he said.

Filing an affidavit before the Delhi high court, Govindacharya contended that the Modi government is violating the Public Records Act by using social media websites like Facebook, which has its server in the US.

"Ministries are operating official accounts of Facebook, for which illegal agreements are signed and Facebook gets the rights of commercial usages of data...If rules are not enforced and data not kept in Indian servers, then the Modi government's digital India programme will benefit the US, and, India, instead of Nation first, will become Nation worst," the affidavit said.

Seeking a stay on the government's move, he said the government has also violated the Official Secrets Act, Article 14 and 19, RTI Act and IT Act and the government data is transferred to a foreign country, it said.

He claimed that a training camp for social media was organised on July 11, 2014, and instructions have been issued by the government for using Hindi in official communication through social media.

Govindacharya's lawyer Virag Gupta said government data cannot be used for foreign companies' commercial gain and all such agreements are illegal and violative of Public Records Act and Official Secrets Act.

"In India, there are more than 10 crore Facebook users, giving revenue of thousands of crores to the Website but the social network site neither pays income tax nor service tax."

Two years ago, Govindacharya has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the high court, seeking a direction to the central government to formulate an email policy for government officials in consonance with the Public Records Act in order to avoid transfer of data to servers outside the country.

... Some say only Gmail addresses were leaked
Almost 5 million combinations of Gmail addresses and passwords were posted online. According to some security experts, the addresses seemed to have been taken from websites where users give Gmail addresses to register.
The list comprising Gmail addresses and passwords was posted on a Russian Bitcoin forum on Tuesday, reported stuff.co.nz.
Most of the passwords leaked seemed to be 'mypassword' while users' actual passwords might be different. However, the authenticity of the addresses and passwords could not be confirmed.
Many Reddit users said their Gmail addresses were there but their passwords were incorrect.

Google issued a statement saying it's safe and there's nothing to worry about. "The security of our users' information is top priority for us. We have no evidence that our systems have been compromised, but whenever we become aware that accounts may have been, we take steps to help those users secure their accounts."