Marine Corps Ban of Facebook, Twitter Cuts Off Soldiers as Conduits for Peace (
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The dominoes are falling on government use of social
networks, but industry analysts are exasperated by the U.S. military's
inconsistent policies for using sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
The U.S. Marine Corps issued an order Aug. 3 banning the use of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter for
the next year. One day later, the U.S. Pentagon ordered a review of the threats and benefits of using social network sites.
These actions follow the U.S. Army's
decision in June to let personnel access Facebook and Twitter even as it banned
MySpace and YouTube.
The Marine Corps was particularly harsh in its
condemnation of the use of social networks, as it wrote in its order:
These Internet sites in general are a proven haven for
malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure,
user generated content and targeting by adversaries. The very nature of it creates
a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to
adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts
OPSEC, COMSEC, personnel and the MCEN at an elevated risk of compromise.
Examples of Internet SNS Sites include Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
It's hard to argue with such concerns. U.S. soldiers'
lives are already in jeopardy enough in the war versus Iraq without service men
and women inadvertently giving away strategic locations.
More than 250 million
people use Facebook in the United States; more than 100 million U.S. citizens use
MySpace; and Twitter
attracted a total of 44.5 million unique visitors worldwide in June.
But some analysts who follow social networks believe it's
not fair to cut off Facebook, MySpace and Twitter use for soldiers who use
these tools as lifelines to family and friends back home. These analysts
believe the military just needs a little governance over the manner in which
the sites are used.
Altimeter Group analyst Charlene Li said she spent time
on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, which just deployed from San Diego with 7,000 soldiers July 31. Soldiers on the
carrier told her Facebook was their lifeline to home, enabling them to see
pictures and video of families. "If you think about the morale for service
members, it's absolutely essential," Li told eWEEK.
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