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Crackdown on Social Media begins!

After vowing to defeat the rioters, Prime Minister Cameron has succeeded in stopping the rioters in most part of London by deploying thousands of cops and arresting hundreds of  rioters.

However, an interesting action has been taken to stop the riots and the rioters  in future.

PM Cameron has decided to stop the rioters using Social media.

“Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organized via social media,” Mr. Cameron told Parliament during a special debate on the riots. “Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill.

“And when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these Web sites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”

Free-speech groups said restrictions on the use of social media or smartphones would be difficult to enforce and could violate basic freedoms.

“It seems like a bizarre and kind of knee-jerk reaction by the government,” said Padraig Reidy, news editor of Index on Censorship. “We’ve seen this kind of thing time and time again, especially with young people, when it comes to technology. Now it’s social networks and smartphones. A few years ago it was video games. Before that it was horror films.”

“More recently, we’ve seen this kind of thing in Egypt,” he said, where the government last winter moved to block access to the Internet and mobile phone networks as protesters took to the streets. “Just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should. These things weren’t caused by Twitter or BlackBerry.”

Index on Censorship said that the police should be allowed access to messages related to specific investigations, but should not be permitted to monitor or suspend communications.

The police said Thursday that they had arrested three people in Southampton, England, on suspicion of using BlackBerry Messenger or Twitter to encourage rioting.

The Guardian newspaper has published examples of “broadcasts” that BlackBerry users sent to their contacts, urging them to join in the looting and arranging gatherings. The BlackBerry Messenger service is difficult for the law-enforcement authorities to track.

“If you’re down for making money, we’re about to go hard in east london tonight, yes tonight!!” one of these broadcasts read. “I don’t care what ends you’re from, we’re personally inviting you to come and get it in.”

Facebook also emphasized that social networks were used in positive ways by Britons responding to the riots, including mass cleanups by neighborhood residents brandishing brooms.

“We look forward to meeting with the home secretary to explain the measures we have been taking to ensure that Facebook is a safe and positive platform for people in the U.K. at this challenging time,” the company said.

The future of an English  individual rights depends on the meeting between social media like facebook,twitter  and  the Home secretary,Theresa May.

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