Helicopters
Perhaps the Police should start a bonfire somewhere quiet, fly up a helicopter, interrupt the twitter and BBM feeds with directions, then just round them up.
Tottenham MP calls for BlackBerry Messenging suspension
Tottenham MP David Lammy has called on RIM to shut down its BlackBerry Messenger service overnight, to prevent rioters using the closed network to coordinate gatherings. Speaking on 5Live, Lammy claimed that the messaging service was "one of reasons why unsophisticated criminals are outfoxing an otherwise sophisticated police …
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Wednesday 10th August 2011 12:18 GMT Anonymous Coward
It's been done...
"I did wonder what would be the cost of sending a copy of 1984 to every MP and Lord in westminister, with a covering letter saying something along the lines of "Dont do this!"."
Cost was large(ish), but plenty of donaters made it easier, and it wasn't sent to all, just the cabinet members. The message written in each was "This book was intended as a warning, not as an instruction manual." It was supposed to arrive on the anniversary of the books first publication, but Amazon were far too efficient and delivered them all a day early.
It was never reported in the mainstream media.
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 14:45 GMT Rob Crawford
Yet another cabbage in Westminister
What doesn't he realise that they're smart phones and therefore have access to the vast majority of message services on the internet.
Close BBM and they just move to something else?
All it will do is annoy the normal users (if such a thing exists in the teenage universe)
Then again maybe that's their inroad to blocking sections of the internet whenever they take a dislike to a particular aspect.
Where's my tinfoil hat
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 19:31 GMT The Cube
You are seriously overestimating
How intelligent the thieving chavscum are.
"Can it has facebook?" Is the extent of their technical knowledge when they aren't saying "wot, does you want fries with that?".
The point is that BBM is a very easy and convenient method for some thicko scum to organise trouble. They are not organised enough to move to other platforms, as soon as you increase the level of effort or skills beyond "Ug" they are out of the game.
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 14:45 GMT Is it me?
Alternately
You could shut down mobile phones altogether, emergency powers exist to do this, and it could be done for relatively small areas in London, as was done with 7/7.
However that would also prevent sophisticated Police officers using their BBM services.
Never listen to MPs when they make statements on technology, very few of them understand how it works, or who uses it.
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Wednesday 10th August 2011 00:20 GMT ph0b0s
Love how...
the social media networks were the toast of the town when the Arab spring happened. The same people soon change their tune when the technology is used here. It's a double edged sword. It can be used by these criminals just as well as legitimate protesters.
But of course this idea is completely goes over the heads of MP's, who want to have their cake and eat it. They want a system that allows unfettered freedom of speak; and then the ability to censor it when people say stuff they don't like. Hello? Knock knock anyone in there, anything between those ears?
How about looking at the underlying reasons people are using the technology for no good rather than just removing the technology. That just solves the symptom rather than the disease....
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 14:54 GMT Anonymous Coward 101
This is what is called placebo politics
It is unverified that rioters are primarily using BBM to send messages to each other, but if they were, so what? To communicate, rioters can use internet chat forums, twitter, email, phone calls, face to face chat, regular text messages, etc etc. BBM is just another medium, albeit a convenient one. I am not doctrinaire about this - if there was a real problem that could be averted by stopping BBM, then do it. But this is nonsense.
David Lammy is a twat.
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 14:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
apparently on blogs.blackberry.com
"Dear Rim;
You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all, the Police are looking to arrest as many people as possible to save themselves from embarrassment…. if you do assist the police by giving them chat logs, gps locations, customer information & access to peoples BlackBerryMessengers you will regret it, we have access to your database which includes your employees information; e.g – Addresses, Names, Phone Numbers etc. – now if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters…. do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps? Think about it…. and don’t think that the police will protect your employees, the police can’t protect themselves let alone protect others….. if you make the wrong choice your database will be made public, save yourself the embarrassment and make the right choice. don’t be a puppet.."
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 15:14 GMT Tom 38
Insert title here
Apparently BBM'ing is all the rage amongst the yoof, since it apparently doesn't cost data or voice allowance, so as long as you have 50p credit left on your phone, you can bbm for free as much as you like.
I also like the quote from AC above - Dear RIM, please don't tell on us or innocent people will get hurt. If you're not falling for that, then we've already hacked you and we'll come riot at your home if you do. Oh, and we're still innocent.
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 15:30 GMT Yet Another Anonymous coward
Ban trousers
Closely following coverage of the riots I have noticed that the majority of these young miscreants are wearing trousers, and along with the infamous hoody, it seems that trousers have been a necessary component of every major riot and disturbance since the french revolution - with the exceptions of a few uppity scots and that unfortunate fracas at the transvestite ball.
I call for the immediate banning of trousers in public and commend this idea to the house
General D Mail-Reader (retd)
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Tuesday 9th August 2011 19:31 GMT Anonymous Coward
He is totally right with this one
Not usually a fan of this guy but he's correct in this case I think. Don't call him clueless when he does indeed know what he's talking about here:
I'm a teacher in a London school in a poor area - the vast majority of kids don't use twitter or even have phone credit to message or phone, they just broadcast free messages to each other and whole lists of people using BBM. Yes it won't stop some teenagers using other ways to communicate - but for the majority it will indeed stop their main, free method that lets messages (like places to start fights after school) spread like wildfire.
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Wednesday 10th August 2011 00:20 GMT Dan 55
Um, BBM isn't free on PAYG
AFAIK there's a monthly charge on all operators. They may have introductory offers to get you hooked on BBM, but in order to get a BlackBerry on PAYG you've just coughed up about 150 quid so that's hardly free either.
As a teacher you should know the problem is a little more serious than them having access to BBM and school fights and looting happened before BBM was launched.
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Wednesday 10th August 2011 10:13 GMT Rob Crawford
Oh Dear
You seriously think that BBM should be closed for everybody in the country because of this?
So the services my daughter pays for in another part of the UK should be withdrawn because of a few hundred thugs.
What something exists outside of your backyard?
Various businesses also use BBM to contact groups of staff (including those of us who cover essential services out of hours)
So follow this advice,
It's better to be quiet and thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm that belief.
Considering with the looters new found wealth they could afford the extra 50 pence per day for internet access to the likes of fring et al, which allows group message and private chat areas (there are literally 100s of such free services)
How about cutting off data services in looting area cell towers and then the thugs can't contact each other and hopefully the rest of us will not have to listen to so many clueless individuals trying to inflict their crap solution on the whole of the UK.
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Wednesday 10th August 2011 12:25 GMT qwertyop
Why the abuse?
Do I think that the service that is now understood to be the main force of these teenagers mobilising should have been interrupted for a temporary period of about 12 hours? Yes. Prevention is better than cure. I'm not talking about banning the service, just a temporary fix! If it was adults it wouldn't make much difference, but it was mainly kids who in my experience do indeed use BBM for 99% of their digital communication.
And in reply to the other poster - yes the parents of these kids usually do stump up the money for an expensive PAYG phone, there's a bizarre type of keeping up with the Joneses amongst parents in deprived areas to adorn their kids with new stuff to try to show they're not as poor as they are. Which is probably a contributing factor to all this but there we go
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Wednesday 10th August 2011 00:20 GMT Dan 55
MP calls for What's App ban
That'll be the headline by the end of this week.
End of next week will be, oooh, I don't know, let's progressively work down this list...
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/topfree/category/81?recordsPerPage=100&lang=en
By the time we get to the end of the list in 53 weeks time there'll be no more looting. Ever.
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Wednesday 10th August 2011 13:58 GMT James Dunmore
because riots didn't happen before the internet
Yep, it's modern tech's fault - let's just turn off the internet - big red button on the door of IP house.
Okay - obviously phones/social networking had meant that the riots can be organised and spread from area to area quicker, but come on, surely the police have a similar technology to rely on to deploy cops?!
This topic is closed for new posts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
