Social Media’s Popularity Too Much For Montenegro Gov’t

Yesterday, a new report from Nielsen Online claimed that a lot more online video viewing takes place during business hours on weekdays than just about any time on weekends.  Officials in the tiny country of Montenegro were probably pleased to hear this, as the stats help justify new social media restrictions.

 Montenegro

Starting today, computers within Montenegro’s government facilities will sometimes be cut off from sites like YouTube and Facebook.  Dusko Mihailovic writes, "The office in charge of maintaining the government’s network explained that they sought to avoid a meltdown of its system from excess traffic."

The move might reduce the threat posed by malware, too, and keep employees on task.  It looks like full access will be restored when the workday ends, making the whole thing sound rather reasonable.

Looked at the right way, the development even acts as something of a compliment to social media; its popularity is enough to threaten a nation’s tech infrastructure.

That’s not to say the ban won’t serve as something of a roadblock and rude surprise, though.  Here’s an interesting factoid for you: while the official language of Montenegro is called Montenegrin, it’s highly similar to Serbian, and Bosnian and Croatian are spoken as well.  Tidbit number two: Facebook launched Serbian and Croation versions of its site last week.