Since there were no lectures or readings this week I wanted to talk about something that occurred in the aftermath of the London Riots.
Consider this article by Juliette Garside published on the Guardians Website today.
In it she states that politicians are rethinking the extent to which police can block access to communications networks and social media during times of civil unrest. The most glaring quote comes from the British Prime Minister David Cameron who states “When people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them.”
First of all I want to make it clear that at no point do I agree with the acts committed by the people involved in the recent London riots or support the use of technology to commit violence, however this attempt by the British government to censor social media and mobile communications networks appears to conflict with the way western countries celebrated the use of social media in the political upheavals throughout the Middle East. In fact in February of this year, in a speech to Kuwait National Assemble Mr Cameron stated that freedom of speech and the Internet in freedom of assembly should be the entitlement of people everywhere, “of people in Tahrir Square as much as Trafalgar Square.” Most people would agree that celebrating social media as a platform for democracy overseas whilst attempting to restrict its use at home is a huge contradiction.
In fact news sources have reported that during the riots social media was used more to report on the riots and inform people about which areas were safe and to organize cleanups than they were to plan criminal activity. Whether you enjoy using social media or not, no one can deny that it contributes more good than harm in a crisis situation as we have seen in response to the Christchurch Earthquakes or Queensland floods this year and blocking social media is just an attempt at a quick fix, rather than try to understand the real cause of the problem.
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