That was quick. Five days after making the decision to block Facebook from legislative computers in the state of Maryland, the head of the assembly’s information technology office announced that he will reopen access to Facebook, likely by the end of the week.

Why the quick turnaround? The office ban of Facebook’s social networking site brought on protests from lawmakers, reports The Washington Post. The protesters expressed a strong enough need to utilize Facebook for work purposes, but it was a fear of spreading viruses that led Maryland’s General Assembly to block both Facebook and MySpace in the first place.
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Are social networks to blame for viruses running on company computers? The Maryland General Assembly has completely blocked social networks Facebook and MySpace from the computers of state legislators and their staffs, citing an increase in viruses and malware that are affecting the computers of the Maryland General Assembly, according to New Line. Michael Gaudiello, who is the Office of Legislative Information Systems Director, sent out a memorandum telling the staff of the new 2009 policy.

It seems a bit strange that the social networks themselves are to blame for malware, but the memo states that weeks of analysis concludes that many of the infecting programs are originating from pages hosted on Facebook and MySpace. So to decrease the number of viruses affecting the machines of the Maryland General Assembly facilities, both Facebook and MySpace have simply been blocked all together.
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