I don’t know how many of you have had a friend or loved one over in Iraq, but they definitely rely quit heavily on the internet in order to stay in touch with friends and family. I had a friend over there for a year, and MySpace was pretty much the only way I kept in touch with him. I know for a fact that the majority of soldiers stationed over there use MySpace (or a similiar social networking site) in order to stay in touch with people. So for those that are still stationed over there, this article is definitely bad news.
According to a memo that was sent on Friday by the US Forces Korea commander, the Defense Department will soon begin blocking access to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular Web sites on its networks. This is a major step, and will impact soldiers significantly - Possibly more than the Defense Department understands. Fortunately, members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks, but Defense Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sites affected by this ban are YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket. You can read the full article here.
I wonder how much trouble a member of the military would get into if they were caught using, say, a MySpace Unblocker site to access MySpace? Surely some soldiers are aware of proxy sites and how to use them… I hope that this move doesn’t affect our soldiers serving abroad too much, and that they are still able to stay connected to their family and friends.
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