Balkinization: Balkinization blocked by People's Republic of China, United States Air Force

Balkinization blocked by People's Republic of China, United States Air Force

The Air Force is tightening restrictions on which blogs its troops can read, cutting off access to just about any independent site with the word "blog" in its web address. It's the latest move in a larger struggle within the military over the value -- and hazards -- of the sites. At least one senior Air Force official calls the squeeze so "utterly stupid, it makes me want to scream."

Shachtman's story on Wired suggests that there is some dispute about which blogs are actually being blocked. If any readers at Air Force bases have access to this blog, or know more about the policy, please let us know in the comments.

Posted 6:27 AM by JB [link]

Comments:

I was in the Air Force 6 months ago, and at my base at that time all blogspot.com websites were blocked. I could access Balkinization through google reader but not directly.

My impression of the policy was that blogs were viewed the way someone might view Facebook or MySpace: time consuming, unprofessional, and not a legitimate use of a government computer.

# posted by

Chirdson : 8:30 AM

This is a really really dumb move by the USAF.

The miliblogs have been the greatest objective source of news from the front. You can get the real deal without the media filters.

In stark contrast, it is hard to total all the instances of ignorance, misrepresentation and outright lying about the war by "established sources" like the NYT.

So what does the USAF do? They approve the NYT and attempt to block access to the miliblogs.

Whoever made this decision for the USAF is most definitely not internet savvy.

I believe the Army tried this before and backed down when its soldiers complained and educated the decision makers. Indeed, the Army started to post video content provided by the soldiers from the front to let the citizenry know what was really going on. It was a tremendous recruiting tool among the internet generation.

Hopefully, the USAF will also reconsider their decision and join the 21st Century.

# posted by

Bart DePalma : 8:59 AM

Indeed, the Army started to post video content provided by the soldiers from the front to let the citizenry know what was really going on.
# posted by Bart DePalma : 8:59 AM

Too bad the CIA torture teams didn't have this same policy.

# posted by

Bartbuster : 10:16 AM

What Bart said, only with slams at Fox substituted for slams at the NYT.

# posted by

ADamiani : 10:26 AM

Fox News has also missed much of the war, but they do get out of the Green Zone more than most other networks.

The miliblogs are the first largely unfiltered news stream from a war in history. It is a fascinating development which the USAF should not be trying to stop.

# posted by

Bart DePalma : 10:39 AM

The miliblogs are the first largely unfiltered news stream from a war in history.

Considering that they're not allowed to criticize the dumbass who got them into this mess, you must have an interesting definition for "unfiltered".

# posted by

Bartbuster : 10:50 AM

For the record, "we found a bunch of people willing to parrot rightwingnut propaganda" is NOT unfiltered news stream from a war.

# posted by

Bartbuster : 11:18 AM

I've gotten a few hits from ".mil" sites (and also one from "....doj.gov") in the past. I'll look to see if I see any new ones (my blog is also in the same "blogspot.com" domain as Balkinization).

Cheers,

# posted by

Arne Langsetmo : 1:38 PM

BTW, about that link right above, that's just me saying "hi". I won't post any specific information about visitors lest they get in trouble for visiting such a shoddy site (and I only keep track of the last hundred or so recent ones and don't save them).

Cheers,

# posted by

Arne Langsetmo : 12:45 PM

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