Facebook BANNED for Maryland Legislators

In its continuous efforts to stifle quick and open communications between legislators and their constituents, the Maryland General Assembly yesterday issued an edict to block legislators from accessing facebook and myspace from the legislative computer system.

The memo issued by the Office of Information Systems claims that an increase in viruses is the rationale for the blocked access (see memo pasted below).

In response, a spokesperson for facebook states that any person using an updated web browser should have no problems with malware and viruses. See Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt's comments on New Line blog:  click here

Minority Leader Allan Kittleman (R-Howard & Carroll) said, "It is unfortunate that we continually face high thresholds for communicating with large groups of constituents - websites are cut off, our mail is rejected if it appears to be a 'newsletter,' - basically our mass communications are censored under the Maryland legislative system.  In this era of electronic technology, this is unacceptable." 

Copy of the Office of Information Systems Memo:

MEMORANDUM

Date:               February 5, 2009

To:                   DLS Staff and Members

From:               Mike Gaudiello

Subject:           Computer Viruses and Malware

With the beginning of the 2009 Legislative Session, we have observed a significant increase in viruses and malware affecting the Maryland General Assembly computers.  After several weeks of analysis, we have determined that many of the infecting programs are originating from pages hosted on www.facebook.com and www.myspace.com.  In an attempt to reduce the number of viruses and malware entering the Maryland General Assembly facilities, we have blocked access to both of these sites.  As our analysis continues and additional websites are identified as problematic, we will be blocking these as well. 

We realize that this may be an inconvenience and we apologize.  But it is essential that the integrity of the Maryland General Assembly computer systems and facilities are protected.