Israeli military plans to block Facebook, Gmail at army bases

Tel Aviv - The Israeli army has announced that it has developed plans that will ban social network websites, including Facebook and Twitter, at various army bases around the country. Web-based email services will also be blocked, such as Gmail

In order to prevent military information from being leaked to the general public, the Israeli army will block access to e-mail and social networking websites, such as Facebook and Yahoo! mail, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. However, military personnel will be able to access these services on their mobile devices. This latest decision comes as several Israeli soldiers published photographs on Facebook of themselves mistreating Palestinian detainees, which has embarrassed the Israeli army. Furthermore, the military had to cancel a specific operation after a soldier exposed those plans on Facebook. Since 2008, photos of military exercises, senior officials and IDF weaponry have been published online and found in a Hamas public forum, notes the Hindustan Times. “The soldiers care deeply about security, but they are human. When a soldier is in his office at the unit, the risk of confusion and mistakes is higher. When you separate the work environment from the non-operations environment, the number of mistakes drops significantly,” said head of the Intelligence Corps Information Security Gadi Abadi, reports Press TV.