NTIA Launches Social Networking Presence, Restricts Employee Access

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration is launching accounts to share more information with the public through the social networking sites Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. But though the agency is taking steps to embrace the social networking and communications world, Department of Commerce employees are blocked from using these sites at work. One NTIA employee said when attempting to access the agency's Twitter account, the message "access to this site is blocked" for social engineering purposes it appears. The employee said NTIA employees have previously been told that all of the site blocks are for security and not productivity reasons.