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Pentagon Defends Internet Blockage

by Terrence O'Brien on May 18, 2007 at 01:51 PM

Earlier this week, we posted about the US Military blocking certain sites online. Everyone from the blogosphere and the man on the street to Congressman Ed Markey and even YouTube's founders has complained about the decision. Representative Markey, who heads the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, has gone so far as to call on the Pentagon to reverse its decision.

Rear Adm. Elizabeth Hight spoke to Reuters and defended the Pentagon's decision. Hight reiterated that the dozen or so military-banned Web sites, which include MySpace and YouTube, were blocked because they were the source of high levels of Internet traffic and the Department of Defense needed to protect the bandwidth on its networks.

Hight said that troops were not banned from the sites, but that they had been blocked from accessing them on military PCs. Those of you who work in cubicles at large companies are bound to have encountered this before. The argument being that MySpace, YouTube etc. are for personal use and shouldn't be viewed at work...

Of course, when your job ships you off to a complex in the middle of a foreign desert, when aren't you at work?


From I4U News and Reuters


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Tags: government, military

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