By Amy Thomson and Robert Hutton - Aug 11, 2011
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said the government is considering blocking social networks and messaging services amid the worst riots since the 1980s, prompting condemnation from lawyers and free speech advocates.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.”
BlackBerry’s external U.K. spokespeople declined to comment on the possibility that authorities might shut or monitor user accounts. Twitter spokespeople could not immediately be reached.
“We look forward to meeting with the Home Secretary to explain the measures we have been taking to ensure that Facebook is a safe and positive platform for the people in the U.K. at this challenging time,” said Sophy Tobias, a spokeswoman for Facebook. “We have ensured any credible threats of violence are removed from Facebook.”
The social networking website has a policy of taking down content that threatens violence or might qualify as hate speech.
A law allowing the government to shut down a particular network could be easily abused, said David Hooper, a defamation and intellectual property lawyer with Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP in London. Groups could also find ways around the ban by employing other technologies, he said.
“History does show that if governments take wide powers when emotions are running very high, the powers tend to be abused,” he said.
While the U.K. government might legally be able to introduce measures to block particular messaging services or websites, the revolutions in the Middle East this year showed that the multiplicity of platforms available for communication makes governments’ actions to block it ineffective, said Rob Bratby, head of telecommunications at international law firm Olswang LLP. Continue reading here.
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