On Friday the US Department of Defense (DoD) issued a statement officialising the US military's policy to social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook. The memorandum, 'makes it policy that the DoD non-classified network be configured to provide access to Internet-based capabilities across all DoD components.'
But there will be many exceptions, and it's not clear if recent SNS bans by certain branches of the military, such as by the US Marine Corp in August 2009, will be affected:
Commanders at all levels and heads of DoD components will continue to defend against malicious activity on military information networks, deny access to prohibited content sites (e.g., gambling, pornography, hate-crime related activities), and take immediate and commensurate actions, as required, to safeguard missions (e.g., temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or to address bandwidth constraints).
This decision follows an in-depth review into the usefulness of social tools, also dating back to 2009:
“This directive recognizes the importance of balancing appropriate security measures while maximizing the capabilities afforded by 21st Century Internet tools,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III."
It sets an interesting example for businesses, i.e. "Sure, use these tools if you see fit, it's about time we recognised their potential. But sure as hell don't tweet your mission location and target to the public."
Perhaps this is a good starting sentence to adapt and paraphrase for your organisation's social media policy?
The full statement and terms is here, and for further reference, the US Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy social media policies can be found here.
