Post-riot UK government halts talk of social media shutdown

originally by: PC Advisor
published: 25th August 2011

The U.K. government met on Thursday with technology companies for a post-mortem on the violent riots earlier this month, but made clear from the onset that it was no longer considering shutting down services in times of crisis.

Home Secretary Theresa May met with representatives of Facebook, Twitter and Research In Motion, three companies whose services were used by participants in the violent rioting across several U.K. cities.

After the riots, Prime Minister David Cameron said the U.K. would look at “whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence.” The suggestion that the U.K. could censor social networking services brought wide criticism.

The Home Office said in a statement that the discussions revolved around improving the “technological and related legal capabilities of the police” when dealing with services that are being used for criminal behavior. The Home Office did not mention if it discussed shutting down services with the companies.

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Posted by Zinzi Eka-Naphtali on 26/08/2011. Filed under Policy & Reform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry