DoD Defends Decision to Yank YouTube

[unhappycamper]

DoD Defends Decision to Yank YouTube
Military.com | By Rebecca Christie | October 30, 2007

Pentagon officials are standing behind their decision to yank access to YouTube, MySpace and other social websites, saying the websites hog bandwidth and sometimes pose security risks.

The Defense Department made headlines earlier this year when it blocked access to the sites from military computers. In May, YouTube officials said they were pushing the Pentagon to reconsider. But this month, Army officials said they have no plans to back down and may block even more sites.

"We'll continue to do that, wisely and prudently and where we have operational reasons," said Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Croom, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, an organization that manages Defense Department communications and computing resources. Croom said about a dozen high-use social sites were targeted in a recent round of across-the-board restrictions, echoing limited bans already established by U.S. Central Command.

Deployed troops can still get to these websites from kiosks that access the commercial Internet, Croom said. "We never prevented anybody from talking to their families," he said. He also praised an internal military network called Army Knowledge Online that allows soldiers to send video clips to a small group of friends and family. Army officials say this helps soldiers reach home while steering clear of Internet abuse.

"Quite frankly, we had some other issues with respect to YouTube," said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, the Army's chief information officer. He cited an instance where a soldier's video showed up on a "terrorist website" and was altered to suggest that the solider opposed the Iraq war and wanted the U.S. to bring all its troops home.

"Once it's on the Internet it's always going to be there," Sorenson said. "In many cases some of these videos, unfortunately, were being maliciously affected."


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,155015,00.html

[Kolesar]

1. DOD can block viewing YouTube, but they cannot ultimately block posting of videos

So the DoD does not have a solution to the 'problem' of 'a soldier's video showing up on a "terrorist website" '