A Retreat (Sorta) on Blocking Social Media

Wired's Danger Room blog has obtained a copy of a May 18 operations order from the Army's 93rd Signal Brigade directing information managers on domestic military bases to allow personnel to access Facebook, Vimeo, Delicious, Flickr and Twitter. From the order:

1. SITUATION: The Army has recently made access to several social media Web sites available from the Army home page within the .mil domain.

Access to these sites or a subset of these sites is available from some installations across CONUS and restricted at others. Similarly, Web-based email is available from some installations and restricted at others. IAW 7th Signal Command Theater 100 Day Plan, and in an effort to establish a Web filtering standard for DOIMs across CONUS, the 93d Signal Brigade Commander directs all DOIMs to allow access to specific social media sites and access to Web-based e-mail from their respective campus area networks.

2. MISSION: Permit access to specific social media Web sites and all Web-based e-mail from the installation campus area NIPR network NLT 22 May 09.

The key word in the passage above is "several." The memo continues with a list of social networking sites that should be banned, including YouTube, Pandora, Photobucket, MySpace. MTV and hi5. No explanation is given for why some sites are allowed while others are banned, but it's worth noting all of the approved sites have signed terms of service agreements with GSA and that the banned list includes several sites aimed at sharing media, especially music and videos.

While it's good news that the military is embracing some social networking tools, we'd love to know what exactly the process is for approving some sites versus others. Signing an updated terms of service agreement seems like an obvious first step, but YouTube was among the first sites to sign an agreement with GSA, and it remains on the banned list.

There also is an issue of competition here. By making Facebook available to military personnel as opposed to MySpace for example, the government is essentially endorsing the product, helping it attract more business. Here's hoping the Army will shed some light on its reasoning in the near future.