Eighteen months after US troops were banned from using a number of social networking Web sites, the Pentagon has unveiled its latest plan to prevent classified material leaking onto the Internet: its own version of YouTube.
The US military pulled back the curtains on Wednesday on TroopTube, a video-sharing Web site that it hopes will satisfy both the demand for communication from serving members of the armed forces and the department of defense’s requirements for secrecy.
TroopTube.tv [www.trooptube.tv] says it is a site “designed to help military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart,” and offers personnel and their families the chance to upload videos and share them with each other.
The Web site works in a similar fashion to YouTube. Users sign up by identifying themselves as military personnel — or a relative of a member of the armed forces — and are then able to upload videos. However, all videos are screened by Pentagon employees to make sure there is nothing that potentially threatens national security or uses copyright-protected material.
Dozens of videos have already been uploaded, including messages of support from spouses, parents and children. Some are intended to show serving troops what they are missing — including the first steps by the baby daughter of one marine — while others give a taste of home: a series of clips from a baseball game, for example.
The move is the latest in a long-running struggle between defense officials who want to reduce the cost and the security threat of Internet access, and troops on the ground who want to use the open Web for communication and entertainment.
Last May it emerged that the Pentagon had blocked its computer networks from accessing a number of Web sites — effectively banning YouTube, MySpace and similar sites. According to official documents, it was felt that the sites not only threatened troop safety, but also placed an undue burden on the department’s Internet capability.
The Pentagon has struggled to cope with a new generation who use social networking tools and communications to carry uncensored versions of their life at war. It has tried to close down or silence a number of blogs and message boards by active personnel.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person