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U.S. military bans access to social networking sites

By Linda Rosencrance , Computerworld , 05/15/2007
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The U.S. Department of Defense has blocked access to some social networking sites on its computers, saying use of the sites could clog the military's networks, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The restrictions, which went into effect Monday, had been considered for some time, said Lt. Col. Randi Steffy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Strategic Command, which is overseeing the task force that designed the restrictions.

"The consideration here is a bandwidth issue. The .mil domain needs to be preserved for the operational requirements, and it was looked at that many of these sites with the video usage and that sort of thing essentially clog up the systems so they decided to put in restrictions," Steffy said. "Security was a small consideration but it really was a bandwidth/network management issue."

Although Steffy declined to name the sites that were restricted, published reports said they include YouTube, MySpace and 11 other Web sites where soldiers post photos, videos and audio recordings to share with family and friends.

However, soldiers will still be able to access these sites from nonmilitary computers, such as those found in Internet cafes.

Earlier this month, the Army issued a regulation barring soldiers from blogging, taking part in online discussion groups or sending personal e-mails unless they clear the content beforehand with a superior officer, according to a document obtained by Wired Magazine.

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Comments (7)
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If one buys in to yourBy Anonymous on May 23, 2007, 5:59 pmIf one buys in to your theory, it seems like the better option would have been to cut off access to the social network sites from the .mil domain via intelligent...

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Misdirection is often a valid tacticBy Rick on May 18, 2007, 4:40 pmWhen dealing with any sort of hostile advarsary, whether in the military realm or in the world of business, seldom is all of the information presented, and seldom...

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All about "Anti-war messages"By Kyle on May 18, 2007, 1:20 pmI hadn't heard anything regarding the videos from retired generals and soldiers being uploaded onto the newly-banned websites! That does make sense that the DoD...

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Rick, I'd completely agreeBy Anonymous on May 17, 2007, 1:26 pmRick, I'd completely agree with you and this was actually my first thought too. However, the military officials quoted specifically stated that the decision was...

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Closing Access to Social Sites is a Legitimate MoveBy Rick on May 17, 2007, 9:33 amAs had been alluded to in the recent past in various media outlets, potentially damaging information was released, whether intentionally or inadvertently, by servicemembers...

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