Revision summary
Social media can save lives with alerts and wreck peace with a lie. The officer must not run a political pile-on or treat dissent as fake. Answer with fast official facts, lawful takedown, PIB-style check, and a split between private and office handles. Use the feed as a grievance sensor; punish leaks that chase trends. One desk cannot own the public mind; it can keep the State’s voice clean.
Model answer
Introduction
Social media can spread a flood warning in minutes and a communal lie in seconds. A civil servant’s task is not to own the public mind; it is to protect truth, dignity, and lawful speech without turning the office into a troll army.
Body
The issue
- Platforms reward speed and emotion, so rumour outruns a gazette.
- Paid influence, deepfakes, and coordinated piles can manufacture a “public” that is only a dashboard.
- Positive use exists: disaster alerts, scholarship outreach, fact-checked explainers.
- Negative use includes hate, fake recruitment ads, and pressure on a pending inquiry.
What the officer must not do
- Do not run a covert political campaign from an official handle.
- Do not mass-report dissent as fake merely because it criticises a scheme.
- Do not name accused children or a whole community as guilty on a viral post.
- Do not outsource the district’s voice to an unpaid “IT cell” with no file.
Constructive response
- Official truth, fast and plain: a short, sourced note on the website and handle when a fake circular or riot clip appears, without extra-judicial naming.
- Separate the officer’s private account from the office; Conduct Rules still follow the public servant online.
- Use authorised fact-check routes (PIB Fact Check, State information machinery) rather than personal duels.
- Due process under IT law: takedown only through lawful orders, not through a phone call to a friend at a platform.
- Digital literacy in schools and panchayats: how to read a forwarded PDF of a “collector’s order.”
- Listening: social media is also a grievance sensor; a spike of ration complaints is data, not only noise.
- Internal discipline: punish staff who leak a charge-sheet to score a trend.
- During polls, extra restraint: the Model Code is an ethics of silence as well as of speech.
Institutional, not heroic, fix
- One officer cannot “solve” the attention market. The officer can keep the State’s voice clean, fast, and legally owned, and can refuse to manufacture consent.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD S[Social influence] --> P[Positive alert] S --> N[Negative lie] N --> F[Official fact process] P --> T[Trust] F[F] --> T[T]
Conclusion
The issue is influence without accountability. The civil servant answers with official facts, lawful process, restraint of the official voice, literacy, and a hearing for real grievances — not with a rival rumour mill.
Quick related
Students also ask
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“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, but knowledge without integrity is dangerous and terrible.” What do you understand by this statement? Discuss.
Next question in the 2023 paper (Q18). View answer →
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Should the collector debate every critic?
No. Correct false official claims. Do not turn the office into a comment-section duel.
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Is shutting the internet the ethics fix?
A shutdown is a last-resort public-order tool with high cost to livelihood. It is not a daily content policy.
Same topic · past papers
UPPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2021 · Q9 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
How can tolerance and compassion be fostered among civil servants? Give your opinion. -
2024 · Q8 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
What is the role of empathy in shaping the attitude of a civil servant? How can it enhance their interaction with the public? -
2025 · Q16 · UPGS4 · 12 marks
Why are tolerance and sympathy necessary qualities for a civil servant to promote mental health among the weaker sections of society? Give answer with suitable arguments. -
2024 · Q9 · UPGS4 · 8 marks
Explain your suggestions to promote tolerance and compassion among civil servants to serve better the weaker sections. -
2024 · Q20 · UPGS4 · 12 marks
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