Military kills access to YouTube, MySpace, other social sites

The Department of Defense is on the Web warpath again, this time blocking  access to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its networks. According to a memo sent by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander, overseas military personnel will be prevented from using these sites in a effort to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks.  Detractors of the plan says the net effect will be to block access to servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are the primary users of the sites.  Troops and families living on U.S. bases will still be able to view the sites. “We’re not passing any judgment on these sites, we’re just saying you shouldn’t be accessing them at work,” said Julie Ziegenhorn, spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command told The Stars  and Stripes newspaper.  “This is a bandwidth and network management issue. We’ve got to have the networks open to do our mission. They have to be reliable, timely and secure.” In a message to troops from U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. B.B. Bell on Friday, he acknowledged many of the sites being blocked are used by troops to keep in touch with family and friends. “This recreational traffic impacts our official DOD network and bandwidth availability, while posting a significant operational security challenge,” he wrote in a memo outlining the ban.  Other sites included in the ban include: Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket. The move is one of a variety of ways the DoD has begun to crack down on how service personnel communicate with the outside world. The Army has recently changed its rules on blogging. The Army’s new rule says soldiers must "Consult with their immediate supervisor and their OPSEC (Operational Security) officer for an OPSEC review prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum."  Most observers say the impact of the rule would drive off many military bloggers.  In the meantime, the U.S. Army unit that monitors thousands of Web sites and soldiers' blogs looking for sensitive military information earlier this year was hit with a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) lawsuit by a San Francisco-based privacy group that wants to know more about the monitoring program.  In a lawsuit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said that despite several requests for information from the Army unit, known as the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell (AWRAC), no answers have been provided.  Marcia Hofmann, a Washington-based staff attorney for the EFF, said the FoIA lawsuit is aimed at protecting free speech and privacy and helping soldiers and other Americans understand how and why Web sites and soldiers' blogs are being monitored.       

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