MoD issues social notworking guidelines

DAYS AFTER the US Marines banned Facebook, Twitter and MySpace on duty, the UK Ministry of Defence has published a set of guidelines for soldiers who want to use social notworking services.

If the Marines were still allowed to update their profiles the British Army might not have rushed into releasing its rather constrictive list of rules, especially as a quick glance suggests that compliance promises to be a big pain in the backside. In fact, it might have been easier and fairer for the MoD to ban social notworking outright.

The MoD apparently wants to encourage soldiers to use the websites as it helps them to keep in touch with their families and the population as a whole. However, any posts, tweets or other e-tomfoolery relating to anything involving a soldier's daily routine must be pre-vetted by a superior officer. The MoD would also like the opportinity to pre-moderate any comments made in response to any messages soldiers might receive. The first sounds rather fussy and the second almost impossible.

In fact there are more 'do not do' guidelines than there are 'do do' ones, but who are we to complain? Even if we had one, we would regularly ignore the rule book, and we expect soldiers will too, especially since this exercise just appears designed to check off some bureaucratic tickbox and cover some Army behinds.

Despite these hurdles the MoD still expects that military personnel will social network and has published a set of handy tips designed to help them communicate with their audience.

Our favourite is "Don't be afraid to take a holiday from updates, or call it a day." µ

L'Inq
MoD