Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion might have been forgiven for thinking that the British government’s interest in their technologies’ role in last month’s riots had waned, after it abandoned plans to block social media during disturbances.
Not so.
This Thursday will see representatives from the three technology companies hauled before the Home Affairs Select Committee on “policing large scale disorder”.
The committee of MPs has already heard from Theresa May, the home secretary, and Boris Johnson, mayor of London, in a bid to learn “lessons from the disturbances of August 2011”, examining the causes of and responses to the riots in several English cities.
Representatives from the three tech firms have been invited to give evidence for about an hour, and will follow several police chiefs including that of Greater Manchester Police, which has almost 100,000 followers on Twitter.
Last October, @GMPolice attracted a lot of attention by tweeting every single incident it dealt with over 24 hours, to illustrate the force’s workload at a time of public-sector cuts. It also courted controversy with the (entirely legal) tweeting of the name, date of birth and address of people convicted of looting during August’s disturbances.
That may mean its chief constable is unlikely to condemn social media as David Cameron did during the week of the riots.
It’s hard to predict what exactly Keith Vaz (who doesn’t appear to be on Twitter) and his fellow committee members will ask the technology companies. It may simply be a rehearsal of the same “constructive” discussion with the home secretary in late August, which looked at how police can use social networks better during times of emergency.
Ms May brought up the pluses and minuses of new technology again in a speech on Wednesday to the Police Superintendents Association Conference. The home secretary said:
“There are also lessons about the power of new media, social networking and new technology. When used by criminals the potential for social media to cause harm can be very great.
“That’s why, with the police and others, I met representatives from Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry and others to discuss how the government, the police and these companies can work better together.
“As we deal with the challenges posed by criminal use of new technology, we can also use it to our benefit.
“Our street-level crime mapping website police.uk is already a great example of that. And by May next year the public will be able to see how the police and courts have responded to crimes committed in their local area.”
If nothing else, the three companies’ appearance at the select committee hearing shows that the riots put social media on the government’s agenda – and kept it there.
Additional reporting by Helen Warrell
