Pentagon Weighs Ban on Facebook, Twitter

The US military is considering restrictions on access to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, citing privacy and security concerns, the Military Times reports. “Sometimes people, because of the nature of these sites, can have a tendency to get lax in what they put on there,” a Pentagon spokesman says. On the table are everything from shuttering access on government computers to setting up a separate “private” net.

The issue is particularly delicate because service members communicate over a network that is also used for operations. The present focus is on security; in 2007, the Pentagon blocked MySpace and YouTube because of bandwidth issues. “Are we going to come out with a policy or a position on this tomorrow?” the rep says. “No. Next week? No, probably not. But are we working through this with some sense of urgency? Yeah.” (More US military stories.)