Baghdad
The Defense Department has begun blocking soldiers’ access to MySpace, YouTube, and several other Web sites. The ban comes a month after the Army barred soldiers from posting entries on blogs or sending personal e–mail unless the content is cleared by a superior officer. The Pentagon said the new ban was necessary because use of the popular sites was overloading its internal network, not because of any concern about the content of soldiers’ postings or videos. Many soldiers rely on the sites to keep in touch with family members back home. “It is an unnecessary hardship on people who already have more hardships than they should have to deal with,” said Lewis Maltby of the National Workrights Institute.
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