More restrictions: Military puts Myspace, Youtube, other sites off-limits

[milesce]

Just a couple of weeks ago we had the discussion about restricting blogging within the Army. This article just came to my attention, ironically sent to me on myspace by a friend in Iraq.

Quote:

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a Department of Defense policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect Monday.

The Defense Department will begin blocking access "worldwide" to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its computers and networks, according to a memo sent Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander.

The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

I wonder where this fits in the information operations vs. opsec discussion. A quick glance at the US Army group on myspace shows more than 28,000 members.

[MTanji]

No doubt there is an OPSEC angle here, but as one who advocated as forcefully as possible for a comms pipe to both forward areas for an actual mission-related activity I can tell you that while the rest of the world is in the info age, the deployed military is not.

In the battle between bandwidth for "the job" and bandwidth to watch AFA cadets make fools of themselves in their dorm room, I'm siding with those who opt for the former.

The "official" military move into YouTube, MySpace, etc. does seem to complicate things a bit, though I'm sure someone is using Smith-Mundt Act language to help justify the thing.

[milesce]

...I can tell you that while the rest of the world is in the info age, the deployed military is not.

Makes sense. I did some IT consulting for State Department about ten years ago, and it seemed like all of the technology was ancient. Bandwidth was a particular problem, and we weren't dealing with the mobility issues the military has to consider.

[Uboat509]

To my knowledge YouTube has been blocked for some time now for the simple fact that downloading video eats bandwidth. Fair enough. I don't get the Myspace thing though.

On another note, I remember B.B. Bell from EUCOM. He was the EUCOM commander who lowered everyone's COLA right before he left. A lot of married people lost a lot of money out of their paychecks. He was also the reason why my battalion never deployed to war. We got plenty of time wasting taxpayer money in Africa but no combat tours.

SFC W

[VinceC]

On another note, I remember B.B. Bell from EUCOM. He was the EUCOM commander who lowered everyone's COLA right before he left.

I'm pretty sure Bell was with USAREUR, not EUCOM. I'm also not sure he would have had much to do with the COLA drop. That's handled by the boffins in Washington.

Back on topic, the explosion of YouTube's popularity has been pretty quick over the past year. It's gotta be hogging bandwidth. On the other hand, it's a careful balance ... troops today are so much more connected to world.

I can remember going to the bank in Germany in the early 1980s to get a tall stack of 5-DMark coins, then waiting in line for the barracks pay phone to call home at something like $3 a minute. You made plans for a 20-minute phone call the same way you made plans for a nice weekend out. Then there's the not-so-noble story of the Public Affairs officer who chased infantry troops out of the Dhahran International Hotel, where they had trucked in to use pay phones at a couple dollars a minute. The press officer said they were dirty and didn't project the right image of the American Soldier and told them never to come back.

[120mm]

The question I have, is where are the Army's priorities? There may be not enough bandwidth to "surf the web", but I bet there is plenty of salad dressing as well as iceberg lettuce at the dining facilities across Iraq. For all the unnecessary crap the Army resources, why not a functional internet?

And I would rather supply a "real" internet pipeline to deployed troops than worry about some of the crap that the Army thinks is important to get to them.

Back in 2003, I remarked to a co-worker that it was time to give adequate planning and resources to an internet connection that works. Especially since the .mil stuff is getting bigger and bigger in size.

In my current work, I am technically forbidden from downloading YouTube, though I find some of my best stuff, there. Theoretically, DCSINT is supposed to decide what I want/need and download it for me, but we all know how centrally controlled anything works.