Canadian military warns soldiers against Facebook

by Rob Peters | February 25, 2008 at 10:39 pm | 610 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

Seems like every second news story is Facebook-related these days, and now the military is putting in its two cents: war and social networks don't mix.

But is the warning a safety precaution or censorship?

The Defence Department is advising Canadian soldiers not to post personal photos and information on social networking websites like Facebook, citing security concerns.

The advisory was circulated in a memo obtained by CBC News. It warns soldiers not to appear in uniform in online photos and not to disclose their military connections.

"Al Qaeda operatives are monitoring Facebook and other social networking sites," the memo says.

"This may seem overdramatic … [but] the information can be used to target members for further exploitation. It also opens the door for your families and friends to become potential targets as well."

But Sunil Ram, a professor of military history and land warfare at American Military University, questioned the military's warnings about posting information online.

"What we're really talking about is censorship more than anything else," he said on Monday. "This is the military's attempt to control the imagery of what is actually happening on the ground."