Mindef’s Concern Over Facebook

I’ve been expecting some action from Mindef for some time. There is so much on Facebook about our military organizations, reservist units, operations, training, etc. My reservist flight has a Facebook group. So does the squadron, and some sort for the air base too. I was quite amused when I first discovered it. Particularly since even photos, even photos of myself (not taken by me or uploaded by me), appear in the groups. There’s nothing confidential or sensitive, but I just thought it quite interesting to learn about their existence in Facebook.

I’ve been wanting to repost some photos. It wasn’t so much the copyright matters that worried me so much, but more so about potential objection from Mindef. On the one hand, if it can already be found publicly online, would it really count that I am the one “leaking” information? Yet, I could be accused of helping to propagate sensitive military information. So I decided not to post anything. I’m not surprised that eventually Mindef put their foot down and took action, even if it is just issuing a warning.

Facebook is not the only Internet outlet for military information. I was quite surprised to learn many things about our own military from places such as Wikipedia. There is so much that, while on the ground you’re told is “secret” and that you’re not to tell anyone about it, yet you find exactly the same information, possibly even more detailed, somewhere online. Guess what else you get to learn from Google Earth?

Clearly there is no way Mindef can control or censor the Internet. They need a new way to manage their operationally sensitive information. It is going to be quite impossible to expect all our national servicemen to comply with their directives. Already simple matters like camera phones in camps are quite impossible to control.