Eideard

Woman jumps into the arms of firefighters during London riots

Britain is considering disrupting online social networking such as Blackberry Messenger and Twitter during civil unrest, Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday, a move widely condemned as repressive when used by other countries…

Police and politicians have said online social networks, in particular Research in Motion’s popular Blackberry Messager (BBM), were used by rioters and looters to coordinate during four days of disorder across England this week.

“We are working with 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,” Cameron told parliament during an emergency session prompted by the riots.

Many of the rioters favored Canadian firm RIM’s BBM over Twitter and other social media because its messages are encrypted and private…

Online social media was also widely used by members of the British public in recent days to help others avoid troublespots and to coordinate a clean up after the rioting had ended.

Open social media isn’t the problem. If the police and government were competent, messaging in non-encrypted networks would be another information source. Accurate or otherwise.

Problems with encrypted transmission are a horse of another color. Then, you also have to add Skype to the mix of considerations – since it is encrypted communications.