Citing bandwidth priorities, the U.S. Department of Defense has decreed that its soldiers will now be blocked from surfing YouTube. Also citing that these soldiers are citizens of a democracy, other websites will also be blocked, including video-sharing destinations Metacafe, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, social networking sites BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, MySpace, iFilm, 1.fm and live365, and photo-sharing site Photobucket.
In early 2007, Iraqi insurgents began posting videos of their victorious skirmishes on YouTube. Perhaps in response to that move, the
The ban on social networking websites available to the estimated 2 million active duty military and civilian DoD employees that use government computers is said to be due to the negative impact that such “recreational traffic” has on DoD network and bandwidth availability.
Military bloggers are split on the new edict. Some say that the policy is no different than network restrictions at most office jobs. However, D-Ring, blogger Steve Field calls it a “a dumb, dumb idea.”
“First, access to these web sites are good for morale,” he writes. “More importantly, these sites are about connecting people. They are about social networks, sharing videos and images and stories. In an age where the civil-military divide is a growing problem, you don’t want to eliminate online outlets for social connectivity.”
“Is Strategic Command saying that Internet bandwidth is more valuable than public support?”
No Strategic Command is saying that it’s more important to keep soldiers in the field focused on the task at hand. Internet access is a privilege, not a right.
