Marine Corps banned from social networking sites

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Marine Corps banned from social networking sites

JS_Harris

8:17 am on Aug 5, 2009 (gmt 0)

[news.yahoo.com...]

The US Marine Corps on Tuesday renewed a ban on Twitter and other social networking sites as the Pentagon weighed a similar prohibition over cybersecurity concerns.

cybersecurity = not allowing John Smith or Jane Doe to know about things before the spin doctors do. I agree with this if it's to protect soldier/civilian lives but I do find the premise of blocking freedom of speech disturbing.

This sends a strong "no trust" message to soldiers and may generate the same sentiment from civilians towards military leadership.

bill

8:36 am on Aug 5, 2009 (gmt 0)

It does make some sense to block blogging, SNS, & IM if there are security issues and lives at stake. They do offer waivers for people who need these services.

kaled

9:29 am on Aug 5, 2009 (gmt 0)

A ban whilst on duty is reasonable. Also a blanket ban on discussing colleagues and operational matters is also reasonable. That probably doesn't leave much to talk about so maybe a complete blanket ban is sensible - no grey areas.

Kaled.

rocknbil

5:05 pm on Aug 5, 2009 (gmt 0)

Army's the same way, and has been. My daughter served two terms and in addition to blocking many sites from .mil servers, she can't use attachments at all in her .mil email, sending or receiving. I *think* this one's a security issue.

Actually I find it a little rewarding that our tax dollars are not spent on blogging and chatting over the bandwidth we're paying for. It's something, at least.

Now if corporate America would take the same steps . . . in my wife's business people email her all the time indicating they are or will be using company bandwidth for personal stuff. "I'll order it when I get to work." LOL . . . .