On Monday, the U.S. Marines issued an order that bans social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace on its network. The order explains that these sites increase the risk of sensitive information leaking to adversaries.

The ban will be in effect for one year. It essentially bars Marines from all public social networks unless a mission critical need exists.

The document reads:

THESE INTERNET SITES IN GENERAL ARE A PROVEN HAVEN FOR MALICIOUS ACTORS AND CONTENT AND ARE PARTICULARLY HIGH RISK DUE TO INFORMATION EXPOSURE, USER GENERATED CONTENT AND TARGETING BY ADVERSARIES. THE VERY NATURE OF SNS CREATES A LARGER ATTACK AND EXPLOITATION WINDOW, EXPOSES UNNECESSARY INFORMATION TO ADVERSARIES AND PROVIDES AN EASY CONDUIT FOR INFORMATION LEAKAGE THAT PUTS OPSEC, COMSEC, PERSONNEL AND THE MCEN AT AN ELEVATED RISK OF COMPROMISE. EXAMPLES OF INTERNET SNS SITES INCLUDE FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, AND TWITTER.

The Department of Defense, however, isn't giving up social media entirely. Later this month, the DoD is expected to launch a new site with social media integration. The Marine Corps Facebook page also has more than 75,000 fans, although now it is expected that none of them will be actual active Marines.