Military Members, Families Can Share Video On TroopTubeMilitary Members, Families Can Share Video On TroopTube
Barred from YouTube and other social networking sites, servicemen and women now have their own video portal.
After restricting soldiers' blogs and banning the use of YouTube, the U.S. Department of Defense will allow members of the military and their families to post user-generated content on a site just for them.
Delve Networks announced Tuesday that it has partnered with Marion, Montgomery, Inc. (MMI), a marketing and interactive agency, to launch TroopTube. The video-sharing site is part of the Defense Department's Military OneSource Web site. The site is available to 4 million members of the active military, National Guard, and reserves, as well as their family members.
The site allows servicemen and women to register under their branch of the military and upload videos. The Pentagon screens the videos to make sure that they do not infringe on copyrights, violate trademarks, compromise national security, or violate standard terms and conditions barring harassment and profanity. The site also bans commercial advertising and promotion.
Civilian employees of the Defense Department are also authorized to use the site, which requires logins.
"The entire team here at Delve is really honored to help provide our men and women of the armed services with the ability for them to share experiences with one another and their families -- even while deployed far away from home," Delve Networks CEO Alex Castro wrote in a blog Tuesday.
In May 2007, the Defense Department banned the use of YouTube, MySpace, and other social networking and recreational Web sites through military networks, saying that such sites strain network capabilities and present operational risks.
Before that, soldiers posted photos and videos of war and death on sites like YouTube and Ogrish. The military allowed footage of bombs and firefights, as long as they did not provide insurgents with strategic information, bring shame upon the U.S. military, or violate the Geneva Conventions. Some blogging soldiers said they were demoted after publishing information and opinions that their supreriors deemed inappropriate, and some of the material raised concerns that it could be perceived as anti-Arab.
Even on the secure site, the Pentagon urges users to be cautious about the information they post and it reminds them not to reveal sensitive information like undisclosed military locations.
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