U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron Wants a Master Kill-Switch for Social Networks

I resent the implication that the UK is considering this. The Prime Minister is advocating such a thing; goodness knows how many people agree, but I certainly know it isn't going to be a widespread agreement.

Also, why reference the 20,000 people Facebook clean up group, and not @riotcleanup on Twitter, which has over 85,000 followers?

"when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality"

So... How will the police know when "they" will be plotting the so-called violence. Shut down before the act? seems like guilty until proven innocent to me.

The sad thing is that many Brits still think that they live in a free society.

You have people rioting in your country because their voices have not been heard, so your solution is to silence them further? They'll just find or set up another site and also be more pissed off.

I agree with @Corwinb, trying to silence the peoples voice with force never works and just causes things to get even worse than they were before

@corwinb & @racer79: I don't know if you are aware of that the messages were more on the lines of "there's an unlooted shop there and there, let's do them and set the place on fire" rather than "the police is not in the crossing of X and Y, let's demonstrate there".

When a mob runs amok, you must shut it down somehow. And I really do prefer confusing it by denying them a comm's channel to calling in (literally) the cavalry in the form of mounted riot police.

The consequence of this "free for all" is billions in damages, in addition to thousands of young people getting very serious criminal records.

Happy now?

Braindamage, I've got to agree with you mate. Corwin, racer; you're on the wrong track. The riots grew out of a protest but had nothing to do with that protest and the copycat riots definitely nothing to do with it. The rioters just wanted to cause mayhem and steal things, because it makes them feel powerful. It was about greed mostly.

Quintus, shutting down a social network affects all users of that network, guilty and innocent alike. Social networks were of paramount importance during the Arab Spring, bringing democracy for millions. What about people caught up in the UK riots through simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A timely warning from a friend or family member alerting them to avoid trouble spots could be a potential life-saver.

A kill switch is a typical badly thought out, knee-jerk reaction to a problem they - you - don't understand.

I fail to see what smashing store fronts does to contribute to the growth and security of society. If these were in public areas, at government buildings, then so be it. But burning private property of fellow citizens is no way to garner support.

This is directed at the violent rioters and arsonists, not the protestors who were used as an excuse to start this rubbish. While I understand his frustration, cutting public communication is a dangerous tactic. Reminds me of the cell phone surveillance software in The Dark Knight. Evil means to counter yet another Evil? Only I don't see the PM blowing up after the riots are over...

I agree with the Kill switch being bad towards free speech. But here is a little manipulation going on behind the scenes nobody takes into consideration and yet its right in their internet faces. When you do a search, on a search engine, google, yahoo, dogpile and all the others, they send the results in the order of "HOW THEY WANT YOU TO RECIEVE THEM-THE OWNER OF THE SEARCH ENGINE", thereby influencing the results of what you first see. You want the most correct answer on your search, but first you may receive the most marketable answer.

We make decisions based upon the information we know. If the answer to our question is on page 20 and we get tired at page 3 tor 10 and stop; have we been unfairly influence by the order of how the information was presented to us?

Shutting it down may cause the riots to slow down a bit, but i think they could bring justice to more people both store owners and looters by keeping the site running.

How many stupid people will post pictures of them and their buddies looting on facebook only time will tell

if UK didnt have such strict gun laws people would be less inclined to loot seeing as a store owner could just post up with a shotgun

of course then things could turn into a fire fight...

It's a bad solution. Not only that, it's a convenient tool for totalitarian regimes that if pressed, I would rather have riots than a government have such a tool. I suspect that these riots are probably a symptom of an underlying problem. Treating the symptom rather than the problem is a non-solution.

Those in power always accuse the rebels of being thugs and rioters. Free speech is our rational outlet. How often in life have you seen when a person intellect is gone, they resort to force. For the government to shut down free speech is actually inviting violence. Being told off verbally is still prefered over actual physical violence.

Thousands of people in england woke up one day and said "oh . . . we are living full, satisfying lives . . . with joy and happiness . . .So, Let's protest, loot and riot . . just because we live happy lives."

This is the symptom of a much deeper problem - Poverty.

One more thing: Any society the praises and idolizes dictators (the royals) is as f'd up as Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan . . . you name it.

What did the Royals ever do to deserve praise and glory and money - Perhaps, the pillage, plundering and killing of the peoples of the Americas.

This would undoubtedly cause to much collateral damage unless the situation worsened dramatically. They could try and get permission to access peoples personal pages. It would violate peoples privacies but would be able to use much more precise strikes against them by either cancelling facebook pages or IP tracking to try and determine locations of events and perhaps arrest before riots even start on conspiracy to riot.

Er... hello? Earth to Cameron? How about instead of trying to shut the whole damn network down and screwing everyone else over in the process, you teach the police to use the social networks as effectively as the rioters? Fighting fire with fire should work here.

@Bjorn

At first glance it seems very rational to say "If the business owners all had firearms no one would dare loot their businesses." However that line of thinking fails to recognize that the more lax the gun laws the more weapons the rioters have, the more likely they are to go in guns blazing. So far the human cost has been very low (5 at my last count), adding firearms to this mix would be devastating.

England should learn from Egypt; shutting down these sites will only draw the ire of other western governments and not make a difference in the end.

@littlebang523

Draw the ire of western governments? This is a "western government" whether you like to admit it or not. USA, Canada and most European countries were quick to chastise Egypt for shutting down communications during their revolt (not riot) because they all believe in the right to democracy.

Well the truth behind that lie is that each and everyone of those countries WILL do the exact same thing in their countries to prevent the public from organizing a coup or coordinating riots and then make up some Threat to National Security story. The fact is, is that it may not be the right way to defeat the movement. But is sure will help. And when they come crashing through your place of business or your home and destroy everything you have worked hard for, then you will beg your "western government" to do EVERYTHING in their power to stop them.

frong probably has the best direction for U.K. police to go: learn how to use social networking to be as nimble as the rioters. Some fake posts directing would be looters to places where they'd see lots of police would degrade the value of messaging.

However, consider how to meet free speech tests while gaining an advantage for the government: slow messaging way down in times of civil unrest. The information about dodging police concentrations and good looting sites is no good if received hours later.

Yes, I know a rioter might voice call friend(s) and there can be chain calling, still, that's not as quick as posting.