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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It has been a dramatic weekend in Tottenham, north London, where the gathering of around 300 people in the streets turned into an overnight riot that saw petrol bombs being thrown at police while vehicles and building were set ablaze.

The Daily Telegraph could report that 26 police officers were injured, at least one of them left with serious head injuries, while 42 people have been arrested. According to the London Ambulance Service, a total of 10 people had been treated and nine were admitted to hospital.

A gathering of around 120 people had earlier Saturday staged a march from the local Broadwater Farm area to Tottenham police station in protest of the death of 29-year-old Mark Duggan who was shot by police in a gun fire exchange on Thursday. A friend of Mr Duggan told news media that marchers had wanted “justice for the family” and “something had to be done.”

“This guy was not violent. Yes, he was involved in things but he was not an aggressive person. He had never hurt anyone,” said the 53-year-old marcher.

Another member of the original protest, Vanessa Robinson, said the demonstration outside the police station had begun peacefully. She told the BBC that the situation had then turned into “absolute chaos.”

What police officers described as ‘missiles’ were thrown at the police station and what appeared to be young, mask-clad people began to throw petrol bombs, bricks and anything they could get their hands on off the street at officers who were attempting to calm down the masses.

In the early hours of Sunday local time, many rioters had moved to the nearby retail park where they were seen looting shops. Sky News reporter Simon Newton, who was at the scene, said he saw youth wheeling out televisions and bagfuls of clothes. Police were not in the area.

During the violent escalation, two police cars and a double decker bus was set on fire. A branch of Aldi supermarket was also torched and Sky News believes the looters had targeted shops in the aftermath. Also residential areas were disturbed.

Local politician David Lammy made a statement on his website that said “We already have one grieving family in our community and further violence will not heal that pain.”

Mr. Lammy appealed for calm while the investigation takes place. “The Tottenham community and Mark Duggan’s family and friends need to understand what happened on Thursday evening when Mark lost his life. To understand those facts, we must have calm.”

In another statement, Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said “I understand the distress that the shooting of Mark Duggan has caused to his family and in the community and that people need answers about what happened to him.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Mayor of London Boris Johnson said to the BBC: “Violence and destruction of property will do nothing to facilitate [the IPCC] investigation and we urge those involved to respect the rule of law.”

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