US Military Revises Social Networking Policy

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In a surprising move this week, the Pentagon issued a nine-page memo that changed the US Department of Defense’s official opinion on social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. The DoD previously had blocked a number of such sites, with unit commanders determining other appropriate internet uses.

Ten websites that had been previously blocked, like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are now unblocked and US military service personal have been granted full access for “personal opinions”. However, there will be some restrictions and guidelines in place. Bandwidth for military business will always take priority over personal access.

Also, considerations for the current mission will also take place. To prevent critical information from leaking out unit commanders can also deny the servicemen under their charge from accessing social networking websites.

One reason that the US military had previously banned social networking sites was their alleged security risks (for viruses and such) and in their memo, the US military has allegedly taken steps to protect their networks from computer malware attacks.

However, the DoD will still be banning pornographic websites, hate-crime websites, and gambling websites from their internet networks.

When asked why they were revising the rules, a Pentagon spokesperson said, “[W]e’ve become smarter. We realized that the right thing to do was work with the companies to make sure they were doing good security practices and to work with our employees to make sure they were practicing good security hygiene.”

NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Admiral James G. Stavirdis of the US Navy, keeps an active Facebook profile and regularly blogs. We could be seeing a change in the way the US Military handles this sort of stuff.