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| - The Facebook group "Veterans for Bernie Sanders" claimed that access to Sanders' sites was blocked at certain "foreign installations," where other candidates' sites were not blocked; the page provided purported video evidence of the disparity.
Bernie Sanders' web sites were blocked at all U.S. military bases.
Whether some bases outside the U.S. are experiencing difficulty accessing web sites operated by the Sanders campaign; if so, why those web sites were inaccessible.
On 21 December 2015, the Facebook page "Veterans for Bernie Sanders" published a status update claiming access to BernieSanders.com was blocked on some military bases:
BREAKING: BernieSanders.com is being blocked on some military bases, both stateside and overseas, while Trump and...
Posted by Veterans for Bernie Sanders on Monday, December 21, 2015
The post was popular among military supporters of Bernie Sanders, particularly in the wake of a separate controversy involving restrictions placed upon the candidate's campaign (since lifted by the Democratic National Committee). According to the claim, only Sanders' campaign site was blocked on affected networks; websites for candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump remained accessible via the same connections. A video was uploaded to YouTube on 21 December 2015, purportedly demonstrating that disparity:
CONFIRMED: https://t.co/aafap0D2Ms is being blocked on military bases, while Trump and Hillary sites work fine. pic.twitter.com/Ganhfk3ycV
— Veterans For Bernie (@Vets4Bernie) December 21, 2015
In the comments section of the "Veterans for Bernie Sanders" post, the page pointed to a 4 January 2015 post published by the U.S. Department of Defense in which the DoD explained that content filters are applied to a variety of web sites for myriad reasons:
We've received some questions/comment recently about DOD's web access policies, and wanted to provide this statement:...
Posted by U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on Friday, January 4, 2013
Some commenters questioned the legitimacy and date stamping of the video, saying that the page was "opening [itself] up to credibility questions without including details," to which the page replied:
No. We aren't. Legit video from overseas installation. We don't know the cause, as we have indicated, but it's certainly worth looking into. People are currently being blocked, that matters
With respect to the location of the video, the page would only say it was taken at a "[f]oreign installation"; individuals operating the page declined to provide further specifics with respect to the purported locations or scope of the claim. Commenter opinions ranged about the claims, some noted that outages could be technical in nature:
It could be argued that sanders' site was down. To show conclusively where the packets are being dropped, you need to produce a video that shows a traceroute being run (tracert in windows). This will show whether the packets get out of the bases network.
Others were distrustful following what many Sanders supporters felt was a calculated effort by the DNC to cripple the candidate's efforts heading into the Iowa caucuses in early 2016:
This soon after the NGP VAN dust up, this had better be verifiable and solid. I've been trying since yesterday to find anyone who has personally experienced this. So far no luck. The people I've contacted are all stationed CONUS though and none at Campbell. We can't afford to blow this up until we know for sure it's solid. Get outside verification and we can blast this everywhere. Until then we need to show a bit of restraint. "Know your enemy and know yourself and you will win in a hundred battles." Sun Tsu.
Others claimed they were unable to reproduce the reported issue, citing a security certificate error:
You are over-inflating the issue. Our DoD networks are more stringent than the public's. It works fine, after acknowledging there is an issue with the site's security certificate. I've attached a screenshot from my .mil computer. No issue. I recommend you retract your post.
We contacted individuals at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar who attempted to access multiple Bernie Sanders campaign web sites from their respective locations on 21 December 2015. Those individuals provided separate screenshots confirming that the sites were unblocked from both locations:
In short, individuals at some bases overseas claimed they were unable to access Bernie Sanders' websites, but were able to navigate to Clinton and Trump's web sites with no issue. The claims were unconfirmed, and users stationed stateside indicated that Sanders' site was accessible from their respective locations. One individual posited that an issue remained with Sanders' campaign's security certificate, but we were unable to duplicate that claim.
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