British government considering banning social media sites in future riots

August 11, 2011:

U.K. May Block Twitter, Blackberry in Riots
by Amy Thomson and Robert Hutton
Bloomberg

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.

Facebook
“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.

7/7
The City of London Police asked wireless operators to restrict the network around the underground stations for several hours following the bombings on July 7, 2005. Telefonica SA (TEF)’s O2 has said that it shut down access to the public around noon on the day of the bombings, allowing only a pre-authorized list of emergency responders to communicate on its network.

Citizens’ “fundamental right” to free speech isn’t absolute and carries with it duties and responsibilities, said Jennifer McDermott, a lawyer with Withers LLP in London. However, even if the government curbs communications in the interests of public safety, it must show it was justified in doing so, she said.

Temptations
Tactics such as blocking social networks invite comparisons with toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said Daniel Hamilton, director of Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties group that argues for privacy and the reduction of government monitoring. The U.K. government must “avoid the temptation to engage in populist authoritarianism,” in response to the riots.

All social media will be reviewed, Cameron’s spokesman Steve Field told reporters. The government is still investigating how useful and practical blocking the websites and services would be and hasn’t reached any conclusion, he said.

More than 1,300 people have been arrested in the U.K. since the disorder began on Aug. 6, with 888 of those in London.

“Free flow of information can be used for good, but it can also be used for ill,” Cameron said today. “When people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Amy Thomson in London at athomson6@bloomberg.net; Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net