Top US general says: let my soldiers blog.

Posted by Xeni Jardin, January 31, 2008 4:41 PM | permalink

Noah Shachtman at Wired's Danger Room blog writes.

A leading general is pleading with the armed services to let troops blog and post to YouTube. Too bad the video site is banned on military nets, and Army rules squeeze military bloggers, hard.

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:

Army's new regulations may restrict soldiers' blogs (NPR Xeni Tech)

US Army: reporters are "threat," just like Al Qaeda; milblogs = "therapy"

Army audits show official sites breach security, not milblogs

Under fire, soldiers kill blogs: Pentagon milblog crackdown

Pentagon Sued Over Milblog-Monitoring

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Takuan , January 31, 2008 4:54 PM

why is this an issue? I thought all human rights were surrendered when one joined the army.

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#2 posted by pinguis , January 31, 2008 4:57 PM

Funny you tagged this civil liberties, since the military are by definition NOT civil.

Wheter soldiers should blog or not, that si another question.

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#3 posted by cycle23

, January 31, 2008 5:10 PM

Amazing how much is on youtube and the web direct from the military in spite of the ban.

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#4 posted by Jaysin , January 31, 2008 9:04 PM

undermars.com is a website run by shannon larret the same guy as bmezine.com it's just a photo blog from us solders.

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#5 posted by thivai , February 1, 2008 9:06 AM

Hm, I've found the following things on youtube from the kids in our military:

1. Nasty video of some soldiers helping a fellow soldier pop a huge zit.

2. Soldiers making a spider and scorpion fight in a glass jar.

3. Soldiers paying Iraqi children a dollar to chant "F* Iraq."

Yeah, you know what? I'm not sure we're losing anything from their inability to blog.

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#6 posted by Jeff , February 1, 2008 9:50 AM

In case anyone is confused about the issue, you do NOT have the same rights while you are in the military that you have as a civilian. We are limited in some things, expression being one of those them. I think the ban on posting in blogs is required, although not ideal. If I had to explain it to the people under my command I think I could do so in a way that would stress the need for control of information and security. In the military you know the rules before you sign up, or you should.