Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Friday defended the disciplinary action taken against a government employee for a Facebook post that has been deemed defamatory towards him.

"Have you seen the post?" is how Satheesan responded when asked if the UDF too was intolerant of social media criticism. "If you have seen it, tell me if action should be taken or not. It is a post uploaded by a KSRTC employee and it has my face attached to the body of a naked man," the CM said while talking to reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.

It was on May 23 that S Sunilkumar, a KSRTC driver attached to the Nedumkandam depot in Idukki, was suspended from service for posting the content on Facebook against the Chief Minister. The disciplinary action was reportedly taken just two days before the employee's retirement.

The CM said that his initial reaction when the post was referred to him was to ignore it if it was not serious, if it was only a criticism. "It was then that I saw the post. If such behaviour is condoned, such people would be encouraged to put up similar malicious posts about your families. What is the message that would be sent out if action is not taken against a person who had put up such a post? Tomorrow, it will be your pictures that will be morphed in such a manner," the CM said. He said that he was not aware that the employee was about to retire.

The Information Technology (IT) Act provides punishment for various cyber offences such as privacy violations (section 66E), publishing or transmitting obscene or sexually explicit content (sections 67, 67A, 67B).

Ruler 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules, 2021, restricts hosting, storing, transmitting, displaying or publishing information/content that, among other things, is "obscene, pornographic, invasive of another's privacy, insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, racially or ethnically objectionable, or promoting hate or violence".

Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, also provides punishment for offences like obscene acts (Section 296), sale of obscene material, including display of any such content in electronic form (Section 294).

The state government also suspended a school principal over a social media post criticising the Chief Minister, just three days before his retirement. According to a government order issued by the General Education Department, the Facebook post by Attingal Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School principal Javad Subair was found to be derogatory towards the CM and allegedly intended to create political division among students and teachers.

During the previous LDF tenure, disciplinary action was taken against government employees for criticising the then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on social media. In 2016, for instance, S Roy, a KSRTC conductor, was suspended from service for criticising Pinarayi for delayed wages.

In 2019, a deputy secretary was suspended for publishing a leaflet titled 'Get Out Vijaya' right after the Lok Sabha results. Nearly 40 state government employees were disciplined for criticising the LDF government and its Chief Minister in the last decade.