At Ease, Facebook, Twitter: Soldiers Can Access You On Base Now — MySpace? Not So Much
The Army's network administrators have stopped blocking base access to social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, as well as personal e-mail accounts, Wired reports.
The Army brass now believes such sites can be used to further the military's cause, the story says:
An operations order from the Army's 93rd Signal Brigade to all domestic Directors of Information Management, or DOIMs, aims to correct that. Issued on May 18th "for official use only," the document has not been made public until now.
It is "the intent of senior Army leaders to leverage social media as a medium to allow soldiers to ‘tell the Army story' and to facilitate the dissemination of strategic, unclassified information," says the order, obtained by Danger Room. Therefore, "the social media sites available from the Army homepage will be made accessible from all campus area networks. Additionally, all web-based email will be made accessible."
The operations order (OPORD) doesn't apply to all GI Bases overseas, or those run by the other armed services, which aren't affected by the decree. Nor does the order overturn the long-standing, military-wide ban on sites like MySpace, YouTube and Pandora. And it's almost certain some Army posts that still block the now-approved web 2.0 networks. Still, it's a click in the right direction for the armed service which seems to be making a slow but steady recovery from its lingering hostility towards social media.
As if anyone needed another reason to stop using MySpace. But I do feel bad for the troops for not being able to learn mildly NSFW lessons about the original Commander-in-chief on YouTube.
Army Orders Bases to Stop Blocking Twitter, Facebook, Flickr [Wired]
(Photo: frankieleon)
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Comments:
Am I the only one boggling at the fact that they blocked Pandora?
Allowing e-mail and the like is a great step, but... why Pandora in the first place?
Agreed-
Back in the Bush Admin, the army was blocking access to mainstream pro-Democratic websites like Daily Kos, yet allowing soldiers to log into far-right nutjob sites like Free Republic.
And I hardly see how my email to my grandma inadvertently saying "we're rolling into Falujah tomorrow morning for a surprise attack" is going to end up in the hands of terrorists.
This will be nice when my husband deploys. I used flickr to share pictures of the kids with him until they banned it so we were stuck emailing single pictures to him. Hopefully next time he goes, flickr will be back on where he is. It really helps him to see pics of what we're doing at home.
@JGKojak: Back in the Bush Admin, the army was blocking access to mainstream pro-Democratic websites like Daily Kos, yet allowing soldiers to log into far-right nutjob sites like Free Republic.
[citation needed]
And I hardly see how my email to my grandma inadvertently saying "we're rolling into Falujah tomorrow morning for a surprise attack" is going to end up in the hands of terrorists.
And that right there is why certain things are blocked.
"... it's a 'click' in the right direction..."
I don't know why, but their phrasing of that made me just cringe a little.
@Plaything: i think because it eats up bandwidth. It's why they blocked it at my mother's school. If you had 50 teachers all streaming Pandora at once....KABOOM!
I am of a mind to give combat soldiers a freaking golden ticket. Free healthcare, monster pension, unlimited membership to rub-n-tugs nationwide... whatever. You can't ever possibly overpay them. Let them on any damn website they want.
@lasbrisas: i have no problem with the military making its own rules for its personnel...I mean has anyone ever read the UCMJ? Rules and expectations for military personnel have always been different...it's sort of one of the things you accept when you join.
Granted I lived on an Army post in the days before Internet, back when Russia was the USSR and during the first Gulf War so things have probably changed since then...
I mean, the Army used to (and probably still does) read all correspondence from war zones and black out anything that could be interpreted as giving out classified information or troop locations. My history teacher brought in letters her dad wrote her mom during WWII, and there were a lot of black marks.
@lasbrisas: I have a friend in the Air Force who lives on base and has been using Myspace for years. Maybe they were only restricting it overseas or in war zones?
@JGKojak: Daily Kos is "mainstream" and Free Republic is "far-right". Gee, you don't sound like a partisan.
I'd also like to see your source on the blocking of sites during the Bush Admin. I am open to the fact that it may have happened, I just question whether you have the proof.
And, in case it wasn't well-known, all blogs are blocked. So they can't see consumerist, boing boing, anything on wordpress, blogger, typepad, etc. Anything that says "blog" is verboten.
@lasbrisas: When you enlist the government owns you. This isn't a relaxation of censorship, but a propaganda campaign. Most soldiers are indoctrinated, but anyone who posts something unauthorized will be in for some pain.
@U-235: My friend just got deployed to Afghanistan. He used MySpace on base before he got deployed. I don't think much of anything is blocked when you're state-side, but I can see them wanting to have a tighter reign on what is accessable when they are deployed.
@lasbrisas: The logic is probably more along the lines of that the sites are horribly insecure and a virus could compromise a US Military computer system.
@lasbrisas: Right. And then if some sort of sensitive information "accidently" got out, everyone would be up in arms and bawwwing about there not being enough security. The internet is NOT that secure. Too many holes, too many ways for shit to go wrong. It makes perfect sense to restrict access when they are overseas.
My husband is in Iraq and he's always been able to access Facebook and YouTube from his laptop. Of course, he pays to have web access in his CHU but so do most other soldiers.
@HiPwr: To be fair, Free Republic is pretty fucking radical. Daily Kos may have a liberal bias, but they aren't wacko.
The OPORD only applies to the network infrastructure used to conduct official business. If a soldier has a commercial ISP account (the Government doesn't provide internet access in the barracks), he can do anything he wants. Also, the various enlisted and after hours clubs on bases provide internet access that is not filtered.
Also, DOIM stands for Directorate of Information Management (I am aware that it was a quote, just want to clear it up).
@VA_White:
Not true. All of the Gawker media sites are available as well as blogs such as The Huffington Post.
@nakedscience: I don't think actual mainstream Democrats would embrace much of the bile spewing out of Daily Kos.
I say both sites are on the fringe. But if you are out there on the ledge with them, it's difficult to recognize.
@JGKojak:
Are you bloody kidding me? People who don't take OPSEC seriously piss me off. It's not just their own life they're jeopardizing. Just because you don't see what harm it could do doesn't mean the threat is not there. I doubt your email to your grandma is all that secure. And, quite frankly, your grandma does not need to know anything of a sensitive nature. Fact of the matter is, information leaks. And it's because of a-holes who don't follow protocol.
@HiPwr: A little Google News search turns up [wonkette.com]
and
and
Anecdotal, but still. Lots of soldiers noticed a pattern.
@HiPwr: The Free Republic is waackkkooo, wacko. Daily Kos is pretty left, but the Free Republic is ... special.
@sponica:
They don't read all correspondence. It would be pointless and impossible. Soldiers can pay for their own internet and cell phone.
And yeah... The military has it's own rules. But you've got to admit that some of them are ridiculous.
@nakedscience: @Ayarkay: Checking out Ayarkay's "sources", I see that they are both far-left sites with. Go figure.
And the title of one is "It's Not Cencorship. The Military Just Really Likes Right-Wing Masturbators, Addicts". That's just brimming over with mainstreaminess!!
@Mika Hutchison: If you're goig into the military, you should be aware that it will not be like civilian life. There will be a lot of rules, and they basically run your life. This is common knowledge.
@Hedgy2136: The last time hubby was over there was August 08 and his base had all blogs blocked. I know for a fact Jezebel was blocked because I tried a few times to link him to articles there and the net nanny told him no because it was a blog. I think it really varies by location. His was pretty locked down as far as the internet was concerned.
@Mika Hutchison: there are certain sites my workplace doesn't allow me to see, why should the miliatry be any different?
@VA_White:
Again, my husband can access blogs. He can access any website he wants. But he pays for his own connection.
@VA_White:
That's entirely possible. The Major Command, Post Commander, Garrison Commander, DOIM Chief and the Information Assurance Manager all have the authority to arbitrarily block any content they desire. It's not DA policy to block those sites.
@edwardso:
Are you paying to access the internet at work?
That's why it's different. I don't have a problem with the military blocking anything they want on their connection. But my husband pays for his own with a private ISP.
Yes, it's common knowledge. And my family follows these rules every day. That doesn't negate the fact that some are absurd.
@HiPwr:
Wonkette and Daily Kos are left, but they are NOT fringe sites--
For instance, Daily Kos is pretty famous for making a statement that they will not have things posted about 9/11 conspiracy theories. And Wonkette is almost mainstream media at this point (she writes for Time- or is it Newsweek?)
Free Republic on the other hand... wow.
@Mika Hutchison:
OK-- I am not in the army. I was being facetious. Honestly, almost every soldier knows not to do things like that, and should be punished if they did- I think that's obvious. I have issue with the random censoring of communications-- either you're in a blackout or you're not.
I don't think our soldiers over there fighting and their families should endure more hardship by having access to social communication restricted- so this is a good move.
@JGKojak: Fine. "Mainstream" is in the eye of the beholder. I don't doubt that those on the fringe think of themselves as mainstream whether they are from the Free Republic or Daily Kos.
@Mika Hutchison: no, but I pay for my internet at home to access whatever I want. I don't see how this is different, we both access what we want on our own isp and not on our work servers
I am currently serving in Kuwait right now and have been to multiple bases in Iraq. what they are referring to is the DOD net. Three forms of net are provided here in Kuwait. One being the DOD net in which we do daily work another being our MWR tents they have free access internet but is confined to what the military allows us to look up. Then there is internet that is sold for $35 a month here at my base. The internet that is sold is better and allows for better access than the last two. The little thing that they are talking about is now people working on the DOD net can access Facebook. The whole NSFW thing is entire different thing. We are held overseas to a rule called General Order 1B. Which tells us we can not look up porn and can not drink. Myspace has questionable pictures so they just made sure not to allow that site. While I can guess that they allow Facebook is that they take on an active role about nearly nude photos.
@HiPwr: "Checking out Ayarkay's "sources", I see that they are both far-left sites with. Go figure."
Uh. You do realize that the reason it is "far-left sites" he is using for sources is because ... it's the far-left sites that are being blocked ... while the far-right sites aren't ... right?
@nakedscience:Actually there are blocks even on the internet that we pay for. Im currently overseas. We pay 35 a month and they block certain websites cause they break general order 1B and commen law of the country. Though they havent blocked proxy sites so we can access sites anyways.
@nakedscience: Yes, I realize that. I'd like a source that doesn't have an axe to grind. Or at least a site that isn't a series of hate-filled diatribes. If I made the claim that the Obama Administration is hacking the heads off of puppies in animal shelters and cited Free Republic as my source, would you believe it?
@nakedscience: Those "fucking nutters" probably think they are mainstream just as the nuts on the Daily Kos do.
@Megalomania: You nailed what I was going to say, especially because there's similar rules for *all* US government computer systems, not just the US military.
Still blocked at an Army Medical Center. I guess maybe they didn't get the memo.
It's almost kind of sad that they act like no one can survive without emai and blogs while in the military. When I was in the Army (mid 80's) we had to make do with paper letters and pay phones. No laptops with email, no cell phones. Somehow we survived and stayed in touch. You had to wait in line for hours to just make a 5 minute call. These days everyone needs instant access to everything right now or they fall apart. "Oh, I can't send my husband the pictures all at once, they have to be one at a time". Well, I had to get mine in an envelope weeks after they were sent and it meant more to me to have a letter in my hand that someone wrote. I prefer handwritten letters any day. Takes longer, but it's more personal. And there was just nothing like Mail Call hearing your name shouted out because you got MAIL!! I know it's the case of the old: "when I was your age", but stop acting like you will just die without it. We used to not have it at all, and somehow made it.
When soldiers are hanging out on base during their off-duty time they should be allowed to surf any websites they want to on their own personal computers or devices. The armed forces is not supposed to censor like the Chinese government.
Certainly they need to be concerned about the possibility of improperly sharing classified information but where there's a will there's a way anyways.
They could monitor without censorship.