With London's streets turning into the full-scale anarchy last night many media folk are starting to play the blame game. The usual suspects have been cropping up; the cuts, lack of jobs, pure criminality and quite surprisingly social media are all in the firing line.
Last nights terrible scenes across the capital had echoes of the Broadwater Farm riots in the 1985 with the mainstream media like The Daily Mail already proclaiming that the riots have been "fuelled by Social Media".
The rioters are quite clearly disenfranchised and obviously feel that they don't have anything to lose and with no stake in society. They are taking out their frustration on shops, law abiding citizens and just about anything they can smash up.
Are the rioting of the last three days is being organised through Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger ?
There's no doubt that Social Media is playing a pivotal role in the mayhem on the capitol’s streets. The death of Tottenham resident Mark Duggan and subsequent protest were indeed organised on Facebook.
Messages on social networking sites and mobile phones have spread like wildfire and brought hordes of teenagers, to shops and high streets to willfully loot and cause mayhem on the streets of London and more worryingly in Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol.
Scotland Yard warned on Monday afternoon that those “inciting violence” on the 140-character social network would not go unpunished. Deputy assistant commissioner Stephen Kavanagh confirmed that officers were looking at the website as part of investigations into widespread looting and rioting.
Intelligence experts are scouring multiple streams of messages for evidence of those who might be behind the mayhem. But many of the rioters are using Blackberry Messenger. Which is a lot harder to monitor unlike the openness of Twitter and Facebook.
Blackberry Messenger is being described as a “shadow social network” that is thought to have been used to co-ordinate violence in Enfield, Tottenham and Oxford Circus.
The use of BlackBerry smartphones is a worrying development for police because they are very difficult to monitor, due to secure messages they can send.
Blackberry’s came to prominence with business people using them to check the emails – but now the phones, and now specifically Blackberry Messenger function, are being used as way to organise the riots across large parts of London.
BBM offers users text message-style service to communicate with other users, which is free, private and very difficult to monitor. In Enfield, 17-year-old witness Alice said she received a message on her phone telling people to come armed with knives and hammers.
She said: 'It was all planned. On BBM there was a broadcast to everyone, which goes to everyone on someone's contact list, telling us to meet up with weapons.'
A BlackBerry spokesman suggested that the company may help police trace those responsible for stirring up violence.
He said: 'We feel for those impacted by the riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can.'
It’s not all doom and gloom for Social media though. In the aftermath of last night’s destruction in London, thousands of Londoners and worldwide supporters are taking to social networks to help reclaim the streets of London.
The highly spreadable mediums of Twitter and Facebook have shown to be the perfect platforms for mobilising cleanup organisers and followers in the early aftermath of the rioting.
For the most part, organization has been very smooth, with a few key hubs across social platforms taking root. The @RiotCleanup Twitter page has amassed more than 50,000 followers in less than 10 hours and is consistently broadcasting cleanup locations and times, along with other pertinent information regarding the initiative.