Two weeks after David Cameron’s speech, British officials met last Thursday with representatives of Research in Motion, Facebook and Twitter to discuss ways to control or limit social media in order to resist violence and turmoil in the streets.

The government’s home minister, Theresa May, said that the goal behind the meeting was not to restrict social media, but instead “crack down networks being used for criminal behaviour”. The discussions in the meeting revolved around allowing more power to law enforcement to have access to data from these networks in order to fight back any possible organized riots.

In earlier statements, Research in Motion, the developer of BlackBerry, expressed its will to cooperate with local telecommunication operators, law enforcement and the British government. The company agreed to provide the British police information from the BlackBerry Messenger network.

Gordon Scobbie, a senior police officer who attended the meeting, suggested that Twitter could assist the police by compelling users to use their real names instead of nicknames. In a reply to this, Sean Garrett, a Twitter spokesman, said that Twitter was not considering requiring real names, insisting that the meeting was not a negotiation.

Meanwhile, Facebook said that it had already deleted certain groups, and had removed accounts created under fake identities. The company further emphasized that its social network was used in a positive way by Britons reacting to riots, including clean ups by residents in many neighborhoods.

Cameron’s initial suggestion seemed to be absent at Thursday meeting, as May informed social networks that the government had no intention of restricting Internet services.

Facebook, Twitter and other public sites on the Internet played a crucial role in linking many social movements in the Arab world, and leading them towards systematic change. However, the restriction and control of the Internet in Tunisia did not help in keeping the old regime in power. In Egypt, turning off the Internet for four days was a motive to enrage passive citizens to go out to protest.

Banning Internet use in the UK could have been a fatal step and could have worsened the situation even more. On the one hand, the action would undermine the credibility of the country as an ancient democracy, and as a promoter of liberties in the third world. On the other hand, taking such actions would encourage regimes that have been criticized by the West for limiting freedoms to further sustain their control over the media.

Image Courtesy of  GeorgeRexTA [at gmail [dot] com] (Flickr: London Riots, Croydon) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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Many people believe that Social media services were instrumental in organizing the seemingly ubiquitous riots that garnered attention, but recent news have proven that most of the communication took place via the Blackberry BBM service. The riots began shortly after the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan on August 4.

Twitter became one of the best tools used to monitor the crisis occurring in London. According to Experian Hitwise, a web analytic company, 3.4 million people from the U.K. accessed Twitter’s homepage on August 8.

Twitter is said to have played an active role in the horrific London events that took place on August 6. People believed that Twitter’s service was used by organizers in planning this riot but latest news shows that Blackberrys were the main form of communication between rioters, most likely due to the free BBM service provided when purchasing the phone.

This particular phone is also inexpensive, compared to other smart phones available in the market. According to the Daily Mail, a vast majority of those arrested are under the age of 20, the youngest being 11 years old.

In a recent study done by Ofcom, it was found that Blackberrys are popular among adolescents and teens. The reason for this is because of the free BBM service that offers a free alternative to SMS. It is also a secure and less traceable alternative as opposed to tweeting and texting, which is why rioters used BBM to communicate.

Messages sent via Blackberry informed the participants of the plans in the area. For example, one message referred to Oxford Circus, a busy intersection of London where numerous businesses were attacked. It read, “everyone from all sides of London… meet up, smash up shops and get some free stuff,” adding: “if you see a fed [police] … SHOOT! “

The Guardian has acquired information of Government involvement in tracking down riot organizers. They have sought out help from security service MI5 and the electronic interception centre Government Communications Headquarters.

But not all of social media is being used for sinister purposes.

The recent commotion in London has inspired other social media users to take to Facebook and Twitter in order to clean up the streets. The website, Riotcleanup.co.uk, among others, has sprung up as part of a massive effort to combat the aftermath of the rioting.

The grassroots organizations are coming together in order to restore order. Such initiatives are proof that technologically enabled youth can do as much good, if not more, than the harm of others.

The inspiration of the page came from following the #londonriot hashtag. The creator noticed that #riotcleanup was becoming a popular trend on Twitter and decided to create a page dedicated to reshaping the destruction that took place in London. Today a little more than 82 thousand people are following this page. The riot clean up page had a positive effect, motivating people to volunteer, and to contribute in the effort to clean up the mess left behind.

Twitter, Facebook and RIM will meet on August 25 with Home secretary Theresa May and the police, in order to discuss the possible prevention of rioters from accessing social media services.
By hughepaul (Flickr: Police push rioters towards… my house.) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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The city of London has been witnessing devastating scenes of violence and pain stretching from the northeast to south. For the first time is three decades the city of London was burning.

On 4 August Mark Duggan, 29 was shot dead by police in Tottenham, he was a passenger in a mini cab and was shot after an apparent exchange of fire. Duggan, a father of four, died of single gunshot wound to the chest.

Next day, late noon, around 300 people gathered outside the tottenham police station shouting “we want justice” for Mr. Duggan and his family. Later in the evening there was a mutation in the attitudes of the people of London that marked the eruption of most violent protest against police action in the UK, as bottles thrown at the two patrol cars close to the police station, both vehicles eventually torched.

Collin Sparrow deputy senior investigator for the independent police complaints commission said that the “organization’s complex investigation would for sure take four to six months to complete.” Sporadic spread of looting and destruction in the UK reached Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Midlands in the last two days, leading the situation to become increasingly difficult for the police to control.

An owner of information technology equipment seller in Broad Street, Wolverhampton, said that “he felt like he had a heart attack when he was looted”.

Although there were occurrence of widespread looting and smashing of shops, cash machines and burning of vehicles in Birmingham and Liverpool, the events in London were definitely much larger in scale than in other cities of the U.K.

With rising instability and amid burning fire in the UK, Prime Minister cut his vacation short and landed in London. He said that events of the last three days were ‘criminality’ pure and simple and that he will do everything to restore peace and stability in Britain’s streets.

According to police a total of 26 officers were injured, three patrol cars were torched and dozens of shops, buildings, banks and council offices were damaged and plundered so far in U.K

In Nottingham, a police station was firebombed, around 10 police cars were set alight and 90 people were arrested; and in Manchester a number of cloth shops were set alight, masked youth threw bricks at offices and a sports shop was looted.

These are not race riots or cultural riots; these came to surface as result of the expanding gloom in Britain, where economy is struggling to recover fully and drastic spending cuts, in a bid to reduce debt burden and deficit. One European study claims that about 17 percent of Britain’s Youth can be classified as NEET, Not in Employment, Education and Training, according to reports the areas of Tottenham in London is deprived area.

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