US Department of Defence (DoD) has blocked the usage of YouTube, Myspace and 9 other social media/networking, music and photosharing sites. The military is stating that the traffic related to these sites is hurting the performance of the DoD computer network. Other sites covered by the ban are:
- Video related: Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos and FileCabi
- Social networking sites: BlackPlanet and Hi5
- Music sites: Pandora, MTV, 1.fm and live365, and
- Photo-sharing site: Photobucket
The move would hurt the recreational or informational use of YouTube and MySpace for US troops currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess it would hurt morale of these troops. Why?
I know that many of my friends working in IT or non-IT companies in India don't even get access to Yahoo Mail/GMail or some popular websites. Companies state that this recreational use lowers productivity and increases waste of company time. However, employees of such companies feel frustrated because they cannot even receive important information from close friends and relatives via webmail. For recreational use employees resort to sending 1+ MB emails on company's networks with picures and embeded videos brought via USB drives. Each of these multi-MB email sit on mail servers and get distributed to hundreds of employess. What happens to network bandwidth loss then?
Interestingly DARPA, the R&D organization for DoD was at the forefront of funding several projects that form the foundation of today's Internet!
DoD is not banning access to sites like Yahoo! According to an article on Yahoo News:
The ban...does not affect other sites, such as Yahoo, and does not prevent soldiers from sending messages and photos to their families by e-mail.
FreeRepublic.com reports:
Troops and families living on U.S. bases will still be able to view the sites through private Internet networks, but the move leaves servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan who use the popular picture- and video-sharing sites with little or no access to them.
In a message to troops from U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. B.B. Bell on Friday, he acknowledged many of the sites being blocked are used by troops to keep in touch with family and friends.
“This recreational traffic impacts our official DOD network and bandwidth availability, while posting a significant operational security challenge,” he wrote.
Ironically, the Defense Department this year had just begun expanding its own use of YouTube to reach a younger, broader audience and show clips of U.S. troops in action.
While I can understand organizational concerns about network performance problems and productivity loss, bans are not a good solution in a society where Internet connectivity is not a luxury but a fundamental service -- quite like electricity. Other measures like limiting use and better -- employee driven self-discipline policies would be more desireable. What do you think?
» US Military's Ban on MySpace, YouTube, et al. - What are the Business Effects? from Know More Media
On Monday May 14, it was announced the U.S. Defense Department blocked access to MySpace, YouTube and a host of other such sites on official department computers worldwide, in an effort to boost its network efficiency. The DOD has... [Read More]
Tracked on: May 17, 2007 5:50 PM | Permalink to Trackback