Today, the Department of Defense unveiled a new website that prominently includes links to official Defense twitter feeds and a variety of social media.
Though the Department of Defense may soon restrict access to Twitter across its platforms, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tweets
whenever he wants. For those trying to understand his thinking, some of
his tweets can be illuminating. He has written tweets on the Pentagon's
Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, apparently in response to questions sent
directly to his account. He wrote last week that he is reading Dexter
Filkins' The Forever War, a well-reported and critical account of
American policy drift in Iraq and Afghanistan.GovTwit, a site that monitors government users, lists 145 accounts directly related to the Department of Defense. Public affairs officers for military brigades in Afghanistan, Europe, the Pacific and Iraq all use Twitter to communicate, as does the PAO for the Navy's Master Chief Petty Officer; one of the several Twitter accounts linked to the large public affairs staff in Afghanistan tweets the official Defense Department casualty press releases. Price Floyd, the principal deputy secretary of defense for public affairs, shares his favorite blogs and asks readers for their reactions to news articles about the Pentagon. Last week, he wrote: "Afghan elections are less than a week away. Let me know how you think it will turn out. Will it impact our mission there, or not?" Floyd is the point person beyond the DoD's new social media push.
A Pentagon
review of security and Twitter and other social media sites will be
finished by the end of August, with recommendations due in September.
(Across the pond, Twitter has become a bit of a fetish for the U.K. Ministry of Defence, which encourages soldiers to tweet, reasoning that it is a safe and inexpensive way for those deployed overseas to keep in touch with their friends, family and community.)
Several government agencies mine Twitter for intelligence nuggets, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency, which banned its employees from accessing their personal Twitter accounts on the job two weeks ago. The ODNI has a dormant Twitter account. A spokesperson said that communication plans are under development.
The U.S. Secret Service was surprised to learn last week that it has an official account, apparently created by specialists at the Department of Homeland Security. The Secret Service and other agencies monitor Twitter to anticipate and shape its communications strategy, as the Air Force learned how to do when dealing with the fallout over its Air Force One p.r. flight mistake. DHS's Transportation Security Agency is particularly active on Twitter, and a senior manager there, Neil Bonner (Twitter handle @irishprince), regularly tweets on TSA developments. Several DHS contract employees regularly tweet about their jobs. A favorite topic: why the White House hasn't yet appointed a cybersecurity czar. Although the National Security Council has at least four people in its press shop, it does not, so far as I can tell, tweet.
(Across the pond, Twitter has become a bit of a fetish for the U.K. Ministry of Defence, which encourages soldiers to tweet, reasoning that it is a safe and inexpensive way for those deployed overseas to keep in touch with their friends, family and community.)
Several government agencies mine Twitter for intelligence nuggets, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency, which banned its employees from accessing their personal Twitter accounts on the job two weeks ago. The ODNI has a dormant Twitter account. A spokesperson said that communication plans are under development.
The U.S. Secret Service was surprised to learn last week that it has an official account, apparently created by specialists at the Department of Homeland Security. The Secret Service and other agencies monitor Twitter to anticipate and shape its communications strategy, as the Air Force learned how to do when dealing with the fallout over its Air Force One p.r. flight mistake. DHS's Transportation Security Agency is particularly active on Twitter, and a senior manager there, Neil Bonner (Twitter handle @irishprince), regularly tweets on TSA developments. Several DHS contract employees regularly tweet about their jobs. A favorite topic: why the White House hasn't yet appointed a cybersecurity czar. Although the National Security Council has at least four people in its press shop, it does not, so far as I can tell, tweet.
White House officials say they have more plans for Twitter
but wouldn't specify them. New media czar Macon Phillips did not
respond to e-mails. Last week, the administration attempted an
experiment in viral fact-checking, using David Axelrod's identity
(apparently, he's the White House-r that Democrats trust the most,
aside from the President) in an e-mail asking recipients to forward it
to friends. It probably wasn't lost on officials that a tweet from
Axelrod could be read by a million or more people -- instantly. So far,
the only senior White House official who maintains an account is deputy
White House press secretary Bill Burton. And that's just to monitor his
charges.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/08/gingerly-the-security-side-of-the-government-explores-twitter/23231/
