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Pentagon Pondering Web 2.0 Ban

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is considering blocking all access to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace from military computers. The concern is that these platforms “make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users,” says a U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) source.

Price Floyd, the new Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs social media czar for the Pentagon, states that embracing these technologies is the reason Secretary of Defense Robert Gates hired him. The goal is to “enable [Gates] to engage and hear from people in a way and manner that wasn’t possible before,” says Floyd.

Despite concerns, Floyd is moving forward with several Web 2.0 projects. You can find the Pentagon Channel on Twitter @pentagonchannel and you can also become a fan of the Pentagon Channel on Facebook. Other initiatives include involving blogs in the military’s “Early Bird” clipping service and a new Department of Defense website launching this month that will include links to Facebook and Twitter accounts along with a section that will allow visitors to propose questions for the Secretary of Defense.

Source: Wired