August 12, 2011

Twitter (News - Alert) and Facebook were getting a lot of blame from English government when it came to the riots in London. Prime minister David Cameron said that the London riots had been "organized via social media", adding that the government was "working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality".







Now, the pendulum is swinging the other way. The Greater Manchester Police are going with the old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em , join ‘em” and have logged onto Twitter to tweet the names, birthdays and addresses of the looters.

The death toll from the English riots has risen to five, after a man who was attacked by a mob as he tried to stamp out a fire died in hospital. Another wave of rioters and looters faced the courts last night, as the government discussed measures to prevent a repeat of this week's violent scenes. The dissemination of their information via Twitter is apparently one of them.

More than 1,500 people have now been arrested in towns and cities hit by rioting earlier this week and more than 500 have been charged with offences related to the four days of disorder.

Prime Minister David Cameron has made it his priority to find ways to stop the use of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry (News - Alert) Messenger, as he feels these are the usual suspects that led to the riots in the first place.

The government and the intelligence agencies are hitting up mobile phone companies and Internet service providers to discuss how they might prevent gang leaders from coordinating looting raids using social media.

Of course, that begs the question of how can an entire government shut down social media for every single one of its denizens? And, if they do it, is it really a solution to the problem?

Tools like Twitter are just another way for people to communicate. Albeit, it’s another way to communicate with the entire world, but it’s simply another means of talking. People did nefarious and reprehensible acts long before social media came along, and they’ll continue to do it long after it’s been replaced with the next best thing.

Cameron didn’t suggest a total Web and social media blackout, like the one imposed on Egypt during the recent revolution. What he’s considering is putting a stop to the disorder by way of stopping the communication.

On the other side of that, Twitter can be used in attempt to help curtail the chaos. A shut down would simply cut out a useful tool that can certainly assist in restoring order and peace.

The Twitter account @riotcleanup was launched to get stricken neighborhoods back in order. It already has more than 85,000 followers and has spurred hundreds, if not thousands, of people to take action. "It has been an incredible response," says Dan Thompson , one of the men who helped organize the efforts. "I thought we might get a few people out. But we saw hundreds of people show up with brooms." A similar page on Facebook has nearly 20,000 supporters.

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Edited by Jamie Epstein