DoD Blocks Access to 13 Web Sites

A new policy being implemented by the Department of Defense means that soldiers will lose access to 13 sites including MySpace and YouTube beginning Monday in an effort to conserve bandwidth.

The agency claims the "recreational" use of its network slows down official government work, as well as posing a security risk for ongoing operations. The new policy would supplement a preexisting policy that forbids the sharing of information that may jeopardize the missions of the military.

"It is a proactive measure: we do not want a problem with demand for these sites clogging the networks," a U.S. Strategic Command official said. Although some may think it is also a move to control the flow of information out of the war area, the DoD denied it, saying it was "solely a bandwidth/network management issue."

While members of the military could still visit these sites from their own machines and networks, those computers connected to the DoD would have the sites blocked. For many in the war now, the Defense Department network is the only means of Internet communication.

Covered in the ban are the following sites: video sites YouTube, Metacafe, iFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, social networks MySpace, BlackPlanet, and Hi5, music sites MTV and online radio sites Pandora, 1.fm, and live365, and photo sharing site Photobucket.

Such bans are not specific to the military; several public companies also forid access to similar sites for much of the same reasons.