On Friday, the Pentagon announced a new social media policy that will allow the troops to use Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, within limits. True to form, Pentagon social media czar Price Floyd announced the policy change in a Twitter update.
It's an important move, and has the potential to clear up the military's longstanding confusion over web 2.0. Last summer, Noah broke the news that the Department of Defense was strongly considering a near-total ban on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Not long after that, the Marine Corps banned Web 2.0 sites from its networks. But the crackdown also came as military services and top leaders embraced social networking tools to communicate with the public.
The new policy allows servicemembers to use the Defense Department’s unclassified networks to access everything from "SNS" (that's "social networking services" in Pentagon-speak) and “image and video hosting websites” to “personal, corporate or subject-specific blogs” (that's us!) and "Wikis." But it also gives commanders wide latitude to restrict access to preserve operational security. A Pentagon news release notes that the new policy allows commanders to "safeguard missions" by "temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or to address bandwidth constraints."
So how has this been received? Don Faul, director of online operations at Facebook, applauded the move, saying the site had become a "beneficial link" between troops stationed overseas and their families back at home. And in response to Floyd's announcement, Twitter user Nick Morgan voiced the same sentiment. "As a soldier who served abroad, I think the new social media policy is awesome," he tweeted. "What a great way for troops to stay connected."
Whether the military likes it or not, web 2.0 is already part of our cultural landscape. Military services have Facebook pages with hundreds of thousands of fans; the State Department now sees social networks as potent foreign policy tool; military planners even tapped social networking sites as way to help guide the Haiti relief effort. This policy is a belated effort to acknowledge that fact. Of course, there could be pushback, especially if hackers or cybercrooks exploit this new opennness to gain access to the military’s networks.
Later today, Price Floyd will be talking with bloggers, and we'll be updating on the nuts and bolts of the new policy.
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
