The UK’s Home Secretary Theresa May and police have met social media firms, including Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry, to discuss how to stop people using their platforms to plot the type of violence witnessed in this month’s riots.
According a Government spokesman, the talks were designed to help the government “determine how law enforcement and the networks can work better together.”
“Amongst the issues discussed is whether and how we should be able to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality,” the spokesman added.
However he stressed that social networks were “not a cause of the recent disturbances but a means of enabling criminals to communicate.
“We are working with the police to see what action can be taken to prevent access to those services by customers identified as perpetrators of disorder or other criminal action.”
Facebook said in a statement ahead of the talks it would be explaining “measures we have been taking to ensure that Facebook is a safe and positive platform for people in the UK at this challenging time.”
There were calls to temporarily suspend BlackBerry’s messenger service during the riots that first erupted in the London district of Tottenham on August 6 and spread to other cities in England, leaving five people dead and shops and flats looted and burned.
There was no suggestion from the Home Office, the interior ministry, that the total shutdown of networks during future unrest was on the agenda at yesterday’s talks.