Following an order on August 3, the US Marine Corps banned the use of social media sites on its computer network. Marines are now prohibited from accessing sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace via the Marine Corps Enterprise Network for one year, reports The Province.

Marine spokespersons said the ban is necessary because "these Internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are a particularly high risk [for] information exposure, [due to] user-generated content and targeting by adversaries," reports Emily Miller for Politics Daily. Initially, the ban is in effect for one year.

"The mechanisms for social networking were never designed for security and filtering," an unnamed STRATCOM source told Wired. "They make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users."

Last month, for instance, well-known venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki's Twitter account was hijacked, and used to spread a sex video to his 139,000 online viewers, notes Noah Strachman for Wired. Those following the link were asked to install a software update. The application was, in fact, a 'Trojan' virus, which allowed hackers to take over users' machines.
Graham Cluely, a senior consultant with the network security firm, Sophos, points out that "People are much more trusting of a message from a friend or colleague on a social network than they are of an e-mail, because they're used to e-mails being forged." Thus, social networking sites become an attractive vehicle for those with malicious intentions to make "friends" and inflict virtual harm.

He explains that while email accounts scan viruses and spam, social networks do not. People started working with these social networks "before we got a handle on how to use them in the context of the Department of Defense," a STRATCOM source says. "Now, they're just too big of a headache."

Despite these concerns, Miller states that the Pentagon abundantly uses social media as a powerful and effective tool "to communicate directly with the public on military issues."

Case in point; the US Army recently decided to increase its outreach through social media by regularly updating public audiences through Facebook and Twitter.
Several military personnel propose that while unfortunate, these social media sites prove necessary since the mainstream media has a tendency to overlook positive American military activities, as a Major explains on his blog, A Major's Perspective. Miller comments for Politics Daily: "I think the Marine Corps is shortsighted to shut down all social networking sites out of fear of network security breaches. "

She concludes that the American military is the most powerful and sophisticated in the world, and hence dispatches enough clever IT guys to allow the use of Facebook without creating a national security threat.

However, Wired's Danger Room notes that Price Floyd, the military's new social networking ‘czar,' said analysis is still being conducted regarding the restriction and no final decision has been made.

He says Secretary of Defense Robert Gates hired him in June for the sole purpose of  "using the technology -- both the websites and software out there now -- that enable [Gates] to engage and hear from people in a way and manner that wasn't possible before." A blanket social media prohibition would obviously complicate Floyd's mission.

Floyd added that the central objective is to strike a balance with social network use, without minimizing security concerns, as such sites play an increasingly important role in public diplomacy.