Marines and Social Nets: We Goofed

Despite more than 1,000 news reports to the contrary, the Marine Corps did NOT ban access to social network sites this week.

In fact, in a statement, the Marine Corps said, "Marines are encouraged to tell their stories on social networking sites, using personal accounts, remembering the importance of operational security and that they are Marines at all times."

So, how did news sites around the world, including Nextgov, erroneously report the Marines had banned access to sites such as such as Twitter, YouTube and MySpace?

The simple answer is that the collective "we" -- myself and all the other digit stained wretches who reported on the supposed ban -- were guilty of herd mentality, following and believing the Associated Press story linked above.

I erred by believing the story and not picking up the phone to call the Marine Corps public affairs office, which quickly provided me with the facts.

This reinforced two things I know, but momentarily forgot this week: Never believe anything I read unless I check it out and that even in the digital media age, a plain old phone call is still the best way to gather information.

As Marine spokesman Lt. Craig Thomas explained to me, the AP misconstrued the meaning of the Marine administrative instruction issued on Aug 3, which reinforced a longstanding directive released by the Defense Information Systems Agency in 2007 banning access to social Web sites on Defense networks to conserve bandwidth for operational requirements.

The instruction issued on Monday, he said, actually made it easier for Marines whose jobs require access to social nets to get waivers to use Defense nets to connect with Twitter, YouTube etc. Folks who need to use Defense networks to access social Web sites in performance of their duties include public affairs officers, recruiters and criminal investigators, Thomas said.

All other Marines can "absolutely" express themselves on social media, as long as they don't do so over a Defense network, he added.

So, once again, "we" in the media goofed big time on this story, and the next time I won't wait three days before making the fact check phone call.