Army Unblocks Some Social Networking Sites on U.S. Bases

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 15, 2009 - 8:13am.

Washington - For the first time, Army soldiers at most U.S. bases now have access to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, following a new order issued by Army officials and published by Wired.com.

According to the order, Army leaders are hoping to use the sites to "allow soldiers to 'tell the Army story' and to facilitate the dissemination of strategic, unclassified information."

Until now, access to the sites at the Army's 81 U.S. bases had been off limits, though the Army itself had utilized them as a means of publicity.

The new order, issued last month, applies specifically to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Vimeo and Delicious.

Several other sites, such as YouTube and MySpace, remain banned, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

Despite the order, Wired reported that some bases have been slow to unblock the sites.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/k6ahm (Wired.com)

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63279

http://snipurl.com/k6ai8 (Wired.com)