US Military Blocks Websites To Free Up Bandwidth

Posted by timothy on Tuesday March 15, 2011 @10:13PM from the but-why-is-virgin-mobile-doing-it-to-me? dept.

DJRumpy writes "The US military has blocked access to a range of popular commercial websites in order to free up bandwidth for use in Japan recovery efforts, according to an e-mail obtained by CNN and confirmed by a spokesman for US Strategic Command. The sites — including YouTube, ESPN, Amazon, eBay and MTV — were chosen not because of the content but because their popularity among users of military computers account for significant bandwidth, according to Strategic Command spokesman Rodney Ellison. The block, instituted Monday, is intended 'to make sure bandwidth was available in Japan for military operations' as the United States helps in the aftermath of last week's deadly earthquake and tsunami, Ellison explained."

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Re:Same content, alt sites by Teun · 2011-03-15 22:32 · Score: 5, Insightful

You mean to say the military personnel affected would not understand or appreciate the reasons for the blockage and would rather watch YouTube than help the Japanese.
Or were you just reflecting your own (lack of) moral on them?

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"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
See? SEE?! by GrumblyStuff · 2011-03-15 22:57 · Score: 5, Funny

All that bitching about useless ads, menus in flash, images in the wrong format, all that crap... we were right!
The internet is running out of bits!