U.K. May Block Twitter, Blackberry in Riots

Amy Thomson and Robert Hutton
Bloomberg
August 11, 2011

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.

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9 Responses to “U.K. May Block Twitter, Blackberry in Riots”

  1. Great instead of getting at the cause of the rioting in the first place, which is NOT ENOUGH POLICE to stop hooligans in the first place they instead proceed to want to dye people and shut down Twitter just like a mid-east dictator.

  2. Thank god were not England. In America we are armed to the teeth and so no rioters I’ve seen have rioted in neighborhoods but rather they riot at businesses. They know that in a certain amount of those homes someone is armed. Guns have a calming factor and will ensure calm in America instead of gangs looting. Sure there would be outright riots that might even spread to neighborhoods but then so many people would be getting shot the riot would be over. LA Riots were soothed by the calming effect of guns in my view. The Koreans defending their businesses is what America is all about in my view. YOU OWN YOUR PROPERTY. You are an individual who can protect himself against a mob without having to join a mob yourself. Guns MAKE the individual. Being an individual is a gift, and being able to protect oneself as an individual is a god given American right that shall never be infringed upon. In America not only is our government a superpower but We the People ARE A SUPERPOWER. We essentially control everything. Do you really think that if their was an economic collapse that We the People would riot for food scraps? A Superpower? No, we would GO TO WORK, which is our national RELIGION anyway, OUR WORK ETHIC.

  3. We’ll just have to stop using cell phones I guess, opt out of the Matrix.

  4. Revolutions took place hundreds of years ago without any computers or twitter. Do they actually think that blocking it would stop people from having a love for freedom and unity?

  5. I see a couple of police cars were wrecked during last night’s riots in Tottenham.

    Rather short-sighted of the black community, ruining 2 of their methods of public transport like that.

  6. The stand down issued to the police was likely part of a plan to make the riots seem something larger than they would have otherwise been, thus making the use of an internet kill switch seem all the more rational.

  7. I don’t know English law but if its analogous to America, the police should say we have reason to belief that these riots are being coordinated on social media, listing which ones and WHY they think this citing evidence, take it to a a judge, and get a mother fucking order by a judge requiring communications regarding riots to be turned over to the authorities, and allow them to monitor those names.

    This keeps the procedure within the proper legalities and it allows rioters to be tracked. It makes no sense to want to shut off the internet when its the police’s possibly biggest asset to out maneuvering rioters, unless the Brits want to set a precedent and grant themselves more power over the internet (DUH)

  8. Don’t be surprised. The u.k and the u.s has been under a psyop attack since ww1. The goal is to cultivate a people who would willingly happily skip into a mass grave.

  9. Throughout history England has fought monstrous battles. Nowadays they’re afraid of something called ‘Twitter’.

    PATHETIC !!

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