Jenga717 writes:
The US military has launched its own channel on YouTube, in efforts to shift the media's focus of Iraq from a negative to a more positive light, and to "counter the messages of anti-American sites."
From the article:
The footage is not picked specifically to show the military in a good light...and is only edited for reasons of time or content too graphic to be shown on YouTube...And while all the clips currently posted have been shot by the military's combat cameramen, soldiers and marines have been invited to submit their own clips.
So, soldiers can submit their own videos, only to have them edited by the US military. The question is, where are they supposed to submit them? Starting "on or about 14 May 2007", the Department of Defense will block troop access to Myspace, Youtube, MTV, and more sites,, due to a "growing concern for our unclassified DoD Internet, known as the NIPRNET". The troops will be unable to access these sites from any computer on the DoD network, yet are still able to access them from their home computers — which they can't use on the DoD network.
So why the censorship? The DoD cites security reasons, but the Commander of Global Network Operations (DoD's Joint Task Force)"has noted a significant increase in the use of DoD network resources tied up by individuals visiting certain recreational Internet sites." The PDF released by the DoD reminds troops that this "benefits not only you, your fellow Servicemembers, and Civilian employees, but preserves our vital networks for conducting official DoD business in peace and war."
Sounds like quite a sticky situation.
