Blackberry Riots

These are notes I made, cutting and pasting from news reports.  Long but still worth skimming, I think, in the light of our discussion.

 

Daily Mail

 

They are accused of playing a vital role in helping rioters to plot the violence that blighted Britain.

But when The Mail on Sunday tried to question Twitter and the makers of BlackBerry phones about the sinister use of their technology, Twitter’s chief executive mocked us and a journalist was forcefully told to leave BlackBerry’s HQ.

 

Their apparent refusal to co-operate follows David Cameron suggesting moves to ‘stop people communicating’ via social media ‘when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality’.

 

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/blackberry/8688651/London-riots-how-BlackBerry-Messenger-has-been-used-to-plan-two-nights-of-looting.html

 

At time of writing, evidence for the use of BBM, a legitimate technology, by rioters in London is anecdotal. But given its popularity among the relevant section of society, and that the attention now focused on it seems fair.

Facebook and Twitter have meanwhile played their usual role in major events in Britain, that of forums for breaking news, rumour and instant reaction. While Arab youth used them to spread ideas of openness as well as organise their actions, the mindless destruction and theft in London is orchestrated away from public view.

 

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology/2011/08/10/uk-riots-tottenham-mp-david-lammy-calls-on-blackberry-to-suspend-network-to-stop-rioters-organising-trouble-115875-23333287/

AN MP last night called on BlackBerry to shut down its mobile messaging service to stop the rioters terrorising our cities.  Attacks have been orchestrated across the country by bandana-wearing teenage thugs using the BlackBerry service BBM.  Its messages are encrypted and virtually untraceable.

And Tottenham MP David Lammy said “This is one reason unsophisticated criminals are outfoxing an otherwise sophisticated police force. BBM is different as police can’t access it.”  His demand came after it emerged that rival criminal gangs had co-ordinated the looting to outmanoeuvre police and maximise the carnage on Britain’s streets. He urged BlackBerry makers Research In Motion to disable the system until the streets are made safe.

 

 

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14442203?print=true

8 August 2011  Is technology to blame for the London riots?

 By Iain Mackenzie Technology reporter, BBC News

 

Did social media and mobile telecommunications fuel this weekend’s violence in London?

 

A number of politicians, media commentators and members of the police force have suggested that Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger, in particular, had a role to play.

 

….

 

But some experts fear the extent to which technology is to blame may have been overstated.

Despite the claim of Tottenham MP David Lammy that the riots were “organised on Twitter”, there is little evidence of their orchestration on the site’s public feeds.

 

[many of the tweets quoted were taken out of context]

 

So why is the ratio of apparent incitement to action so low?

 

Freddie Benjamin, a research manager at Mobile Youth, believes that much of the online noise is just that. “They might not join the actual event, but they might talk about it or use the same hashtag which makes it sound like there is a lot more volume.”

 

Such postings build what Mr Benjamin refers to as “social currency”, elevating the messenger’s sense of belonging to a group.

 

Away from Twitter’s very visible feeds, there are perhaps more credible reports that rioters were using private communication systems to encourage others to join the disorder.

Following Saturday’s trouble in Tottenham, a number of BlackBerry users reported receiving instant messages that suggested future riot locations.

 

BlackBerry’s BBM system is known to be the preferred means of communication among many younger people. Users are invited to join each other’s contacts list using a unique PIN, although once they have done so, messages can be distributed to large groups.

BBM is both private and secure, partly due to the phones’ roots as business communication devices. For that reason it is hard to evaluate how much information was coming out of the riots or how many people were suggesting alternative targets… like other telecoms companies, it complies with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) which allows law enforcement to gain access to private messages when they relate to the commission of a crime.

 

What will concern investigators most is the extent to which recipients acted on any messages sent out.

Dr Chris Greer, a senior lecturer in sociology and criminology at London’s City University ….

“I don’t think it is having any impact on the motivation to protest in the first place,” he said.

“But once people have mobilised themselves and decided to take to the streets it is certainly much easier to communicate with each other.”

Dr Greer pointed to the example of the 2009 G20 riots in London. A report into the police handling of the protests, produced by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMRC) found that technology had aided the rioters more than the police, he explained.

 

“Their methods of communicating with each other or pointing out where the police were at any given time and therefore where the protesters shouldn’t be, and basically organising themselves was so much more sophisticated than the police.”

It may turn out, after a more careful examination of the various messages being pinged around, that this was indeed a social networking crime spree.

 

The extent to which investigators are able to sift out genuine rioters from the internet ‘echo chamber’ and then bring real world prosecutions will provide valuable lessons, both about the use and abuse of technology, and also law enforcement’s capacity to deal with it.

 

 

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http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/08/08/how-blackberry-not-twitter-fuelled-the-fire-under-londons-riots/

But while Twitter and Facebook became the venues for public protests around public spending cuts it is the affordable BlackBerry handset and its near free BlackBerry Messenger network where group chats take place, which appears to have fuelled these riots. To communicate, BBM users have to exchange their phones’ PINs, making their messages are private, but PINs can be spread by any means – including, of course, Twitter and other social networks – but also via (still non-public) SMS.

In addition, BlackBerrys are high functioning phones but can often cost less than smartphones like Androids or iPhones, which are typically the choice of Twitter users due to the wide range of client applications. And remember, Androids and iPhones don’t run the free BBM network, and no other group messaging app has yet taken hold in the UK. As a result BlackBerrys have become the weapon of choice of Britain’s disaffected youth. According to last week’s Ofcom study while the iPhone is more popular among 25-34 year old Brits, BlackBerry is favoured by as much as 37% of 16-24 year olds and 37% 12-15 year olds precisely because of the free BlackBerry messenger service.

 

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Causes of the riots: Old truths and new technologies

It must be hoped that ministers keep cooler heads than magistrates, and stop short of translating reflexive rhetoric into unworkable policy

Editorial

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 August 2011 23.10 BST

 

Eleven years ago fuel protesters held Britain to ransom, and it became a commonplace to account for their success in terms of the new-fangled mobile phones which lorry drivers were using to text message one another. A generation before, the crackling cassette recordings of Ayatollah Khomeini’s harangues which circulated in Tehran were said to have played no small part in fomenting the Iranian revolution. In an earlier epoch, the development of Dutch presses and distribution networks which churned out “libelles” targeting French royalty was, according to some historians, the catalyst for the storming of the Bastille.

Today Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry are commanded to attend a Home Office summit for earnest discussion about the role their networks played in the spasm of criminal disorder that gripped English streets so recently. The hysterically harsh sentences already handed down in one or two cases of pro-riot social messaging is a reminder that moral panic can often follow hot on the heels of new technology. …. It must be hoped that ministers keep cooler heads than magistrates, and stop short of translating reflexive rhetoric, such as David Cameron’s talk of banning rioters from particular networks, into unworkable policy. For if there is one clear lesson from history it is that such technological genies will not be put back in their bottles.

Beyond this, there are few general rules linking disorder and new inventions. Certainly, technologies can affect both the form and the timing of revolt, just as developments in communication and reconnaissance have their place in military history. But it ought not be assumed that scientific progress always works against established authority: were it not for the then new railway to Birmingham, London police could not have been dispatched to the Midlands to break up a Chartist rally in 1839. Nor can it be assumed that the particular role of technology in any disturbance is an easy thing to disentangle. It is at this stage an open question as to whether or not instant messaging was truly important in fomenting the recent troubles, or if instead the flow of hi-tech gossip tended to track developments on the ground.

The Guardian is embarking on analysis of over 2.5 million tweets that may help settle this. The government would do well to undertake similar studies in cause and effect itself before rushing into a response. Perhaps such work will indeed suggest that gangs were using instant publishing to organise on guerilla lines, and keep one step ahead of the authorities. If, and only if, that is proven, the question of bespoke regulation will rear its head. But even then, it should not be imagined that removing one means of spreading the word will secure order. There would still be nothing to stop the rallying cry to rampage spreading through the taverns and streets of London, just as it did during the Gordon riots of 1780.

A more decisive blow for the forces of law and order could be struck by tackling the social roots of the rioting. …. The role of new technologies in the rioting deserves scrutiny, but it should not be allowed to obscure the wisdom of an ancient adage: the devil finds work for idle hands to do.

 

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/16/police-accessed-blackberry-messages-thwart-riots/print

 

Scotland Yard stopped attacks by rioters on sites across London hours before they had been due to take place after managing to “break into” encrypted social messaging sites, it has emerged.

after scouring the mobile phones of people who had been arrested during the riots. It gave them access to messages, planning riots and looting, which were bouncing around the heavily encrypted BBM service.

But it also gave the Met other information, meaning they were able to use details gained from the seized phones to give officers “live time monitoring” of BBM and also Twitter.

This Tuesday, police revealed they had considered switching off social messaging sites including BBM and Twitter…. police discovered they did not have the legal powers to do so, adding: “We did consider seeking the legal authority to switch it off. The legality is questionable, very questionable.”

 

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/08/10/london-riots-blackberry-messenger_n_923949.html?view=screen

TORONTO – As Britain grapples with widespread unrest in its cities, Canada’s Research in Motion is being dragged into the fray as BlackBerry-toting rioters use the smartphone’s instant messaging service to co-originate their looting.

“We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can,” Patrick Spence, managing director of global sales and regional marketing said in a statement, adding the company would “co-operate fully” with Britain’s Home Office and U.K. police forces.

It’s that assurance of full co-operation — the extent of which hasn’t been detailed by RIM — that’s raising eyebrows among observers.

The BlackBerry messaging service, or BBM, is free between users of the device and is encrypted, guaranteeing security.

In the past, RIM has been vague on public details regarding government access to user data, most recently when faced with threats from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to cut off BlackBerry services unless concessions on access were made.

“(The use of BBM in the riots) may not hurt their brand in the U.K. directly, but it is going to raise questions from Canadian government to RIM about what their policy is here and I suspect a lot of other governments,” said Middleton…

But while the BlackBerrys are part of the story of the riots, they aren’t causing them — a point some in Canada are hoping to hammer home.

“It’s not that these riots are being organized specially using BlackBerry, it’s just the kind of people involved in this use BlackBerry for all their communications,” said David Murakami Wood, of the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen’s University.

“It’s very important we don’t start blaming technology for these riots, because then we end up avoiding the real questions we need to be asking — the fundamental social ones.”

In the short term though, RIM does have an image issue to deal with as headlines calling the unrest

In co-ordinating with U.K. authorities, Kanade said it’s possible that RIM could block BBM’s from getting to recipients. But while RIM would be able to see who sent a message, they would not be able to see the contents of the message itself, as it would be encrypted.

Such a “blanket curtailment” of the BBM service could help RIM enforce public safety while continuing to uphold the privacy of its customers, said Kanade.

But, if the company were to somehow go one step further and try to de-code the encrypted messages, that’s when its core clientele would be rankled.

“What the company has been saying is they don’t have the capabilities to decipher messages,” said Kanade. “But if it turns out they are able to do it…then I think it may create trouble.”

 

 

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