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The U.S. may have the most fearsome military force in the world, but it seems it's defenseless against popular sites such as MySpace and YouTube. Citing "recreational traffic impacts" the U.S. Defense Department has blocked those sites and 11 others, preventing their access from any DoD-owned computer or network. This means that most soldiers deployed on active duty, far away from their personal computers at home, will be unable to log onto these sites. The move is unfortunate, considering many soldiers rely on MySpace for keeping in touch with friends. This news coming hot on the heels of new and strict rules preventing military personnel from posting to blogs or sending e-mails without clearance from superiors, which makes us wonder if the motivation behind the block is censorship rather than network performance. After all, it would be very easy for a soldier to post sensitive material to either site, which was the reasoning behind the new restrictions on blogs and e-mail.
Blocking YouTube is especially odd given the Army's newly-launched YouTube channel, in which soldiers are encouraged to post up videos to a site they can no longer access. Should be a real hit . . ..
From Money & Finance
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Comments
204
Subscribe to commentsRogerMay 16th 2007 3:35PM
Hold on guys. Nobody ever claimed that it was about keeping sensitive information from the "enemy" (actually us, but I'll humor you). They say it's about network bandwidth.
Amazing how all of you already know the truth. How come you can't see through all the other LIES??
LisaMay 15th 2007 3:10PM
I think it is really sad that anyone has a problem with this. Our soldiers in Iraq and all those who have gone on before them in any war have paved the way for freedom in the USA. Have you so quickly forgotten that freedom is not"FREE" at all. It cost many a soldiers life over the years. Too little freedom produces rebellion and too much freedom produces lawlessness. It is every Americans responsibility (remember the words to the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE?)to this country and to our men and women at war to find the balance in their own lives and put it into positive action!!
"I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL"
Where there is unity God commands a blessing!!
CPT DMay 16th 2007 1:56AM
This article is a little misleading. The Army isn’t censoring anything at all; it has blocked sites such as myspace and youtube from Department of Defense servers. Sites like those are bandwidth “hogs” and severely degrade the performance of a limited resource. Government computers which are on government networks are for government work. I can still walk over to the free internet café on post and access myspace (I’ve never used youtube) and all my email accounts. We even live in a time where (depending on location) soldiers can pay to have an internet line run directly into their rooms. That certainly wasn’t the case the first time I was in Iraq. I don’t blog, but I can understand the concerns of the military when it comes to posting information on the World Wide Web. It is a soldier’s personal responsibility to police themselves when it comes to sending or posting information that might be sensitive to the military. If you had a loved one over here, it would be absolutely tragic if their safety was jeopardized by an individual’s blog or web posting. And certainly no one in an army uniform is standing over my shoulder, monitoring my personal email that I send to my family and friends.
CPT D
Baghdad
LoriMay 17th 2007 7:19AM
WHAT HAPPENED TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH..IS THE GOVERNMANT AFRAID OF WHAT OUR SOLDIERS MIGHT REVEAL, PERHAPS THE TRUTH