ORLANDO -- The U.S. Marines Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and other social networking sites.
But some Marines say this ban is nothing new.
The Marine Corps sent out an internal memo this week which addresses the ban on sites like Twitter and Facebook. However, that ban has been in place for the past two years.
The memo was leaked to the public on the heels of a Department of Defense announcement that Pentagon is now considering Web restrictions on all divisions of the military.
Because of this, the information was mistaken as one-in-the-same.
"This document was an internal document. Now it's posted on the Web for the world to see if they wanted to. Because the Marine Corps tries to be transparent with its actions, to the best of its ability, without compromising operational security, I've never been able to access Facebook or MySpace at work since I practically joined," said Lt. Craig Thomas, a spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps.
The current ban protects the Navy Marine Corps Network from viruses and Malware, as well as to prevent secure information from leaking out.
But the ban does not prevent servicemen from accessing the social networking sites from their own personal computers on their own time.
Officials with the Marine Corps said the intention of the recent memo was to make changes to the restrictions and allow certain branches of the military to use social networking sites for specific jobs --- such as recruitment.
News 13 found that on the local level, Orange County Government and the City of Orlando have similar policies. In their case, security isn't as much the issue as keeping employees from wasting company time.
In the near future, both Orange County and Orlando hope to use social networking to disseminate information during emergencies.
"There are benefits to communications and communication professionals to using these new tools that are out there," said Heather Allebaugh, a spokeswoman for the City of Orlando.
The National Football League has also been making their own headlines after some teams decided to fine their players for tweeting on Twitter. However, in Orlando, the Orlando Magic told News 13 that they embrace Twitter and other social networking within the organization, and they released this statement:
"The Magic organization does not have any plans to ban the use of Twitter --- it is a way for the organization to connect with our fans," said Alex Martin, the chief operating officer for the Orlando Magic.
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