U.K. May Block Twitter, Blackberry Messaging Services in Future Riots
David Cameron, the U.K. prime minister, said the government is considering whether it should block social-networking websites and messaging services during violent unrest after the country’s worst riots since the 1980s.
The government is working with police, the intelligence services and companies 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,” Cameron said today in parliament. He mentioned Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)’s BlackBerry Messenger service as one of the tools that were used by rioters.
Police have said they are investigating the use of social- networking services such as those operated by Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc. and BlackBerry Messenger. Three people were arrested by police in Southampton, England, on suspicion of using social media and messaging to encourage rioting.
“If you try to stop people communicating, you create more of a problem,” said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, an organization promoting freedom of expression on the Internet. “People are angry because their freedoms are threatened.”
RIM “welcomes the opportunity for consultation” with the British government and other technology companies, according to an e-mailed statement. RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, also said it continues to respect both U.K. privacy laws and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which allows police to gather encrypted information that might otherwise be private as part of an investigation. Twitter spokespeople couldn’t immediately be reached.
Temptations
Tactics such as blocking social networks invite comparisons with toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said Daniel Hamilton, director of Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties group that argues for privacy and the reduction of government monitoring. The U.K. government must “avoid the temptation to engage in populist authoritarianism,” in response to the riots.
All social media will be reviewed, Cameron’s spokesman Steve Field told reporters. The government is still investigating how useful and practical blocking the websites and services would be and hasn’t reached any conclusion, he said.
More than 1,300 people have been arrested in the U.K. since the disorder began on Aug. 6, with 888 of those in London.
“Free flow of information can be used for good, but it can also be used for ill,” Cameron said today. “When people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Amy Thomson in London at athomson6@bloomberg.net; Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net
Metropolitan Police in Lewisham preparing for the riots. 
British Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that a change in police strategy is appropriate following what many feel to be an inadequate response to the rioting that has overrun many cities across England. Riots started in  on Saturday night after the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old taxi driver who the  state was in possession of a handgun, but did not fire it.

During the Parliamentary debate on the riots, , the Labour leader, called on Cameron to reconsider cuts to police budgets.   described the communities where the rioting occurred as being "left behind" and "cut-off from the economic life-blood of the rest of the country", and called for solutions to the "deep-seated social problems"

One avenue the Prime Minister is said to be considering is changing regulations on  services like Twitter, Facebook and , the latter being used to communicate between groups of rioters. The  and  came out in opposition to any plans to restrict communication using social media, with Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group warning that such regulation would be abused by the police and private companies.

In , England, three people were arrested by police for the suspicion of using Twitter or BlackBerry Messenger to encourage the rioting. The government is "working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these Web sites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality," said Cameron.

The Prime Minister also announced that he would consider using the  to support the police in controlling future rioting, and also that he would consult with , CBE, who had been the chief of police in Los Angeles and a police commissioner in New York City and Boston. Bratton is quoted as saying that arrests are not the only way to solve societal problems which lead to rioting and unrest: "You can't arrest your way out of the problem."