Interestingly, London riot that happened last year was fueled by Social Media. By social media, we mostly think of Twitter and Facebook, however it took place on a more covert social network, BBM (Blackberry Messenger). Blackberry Messenger is a messaging program created by RIM (Research in Motion) that only available exclusively in Blackberry devices.
This Blackberry handphones or devices are the choice of 37% of British teens according to Ofcom study. The BBM allows users to send one to many messages to their networks of contacts by the unique 'BBM Pins'. Unfortunately, unlike the other social media networking, BBM messages are untraceable by the authorities in Britain.
The message was: "Everyone from all sides of London meet up at the heart of London (central) OXFORD CIRCUS!!, Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed up so come get some (free stuff!!!) fuck the feds we will send them back with OUR riot! >:O Dead the ends and colour war for now so if you see a brother... SALUT! if you see a fed... SHOOT!"
Another message sent shortly in the afternoon: "Everyone in edmonton enfield wood green everywhere in north link up at enfield town station at 4 o clock sharp!".
Even though Social Media is a great tool for marketing and other stuff, but it is also can be dangerous as if it is used by criminals. It is not just BBM, but Facebook and Twitter can also be the media to spread chaos, but the BBM is more effective because currently the message is untraceable by the authorities.
What do you guys think, should all Social Media controlled by the authorities to reduce the chaos started by this?
Hi Welky, interesting article
ReplyDeleteI think that the social media world will be less fun with the amount of supervision from the government, lol
but then again China did it, so we may never know maybe in the future there will be some kind of control or regulations for using social media
However i'm curious how the government will monitor the use of BBM, as it is a private business company
Social media is often blamed for riots and civil unrest, but can't that sometimes be good? If a corrupt government is overthrown because the people have power through social media, then is that really a bad thing?
ReplyDeleteWhat do others think?
In my own opinion, it might be good having the government monitor the uses of social media. Yes, we will have less privacy, but it might resulting in less social media abuse and crime too.
ReplyDelete