Freedom of Speech

I came across a piece on TheNextWeb about how the UK government is partly blaming Twitter and RIM’s Blackberry Messenger software for the riots in London and other UK cities. Cameron opened his address with:

“Mr Speaker, everyone watching these horrific actions will be stuck by how they were organised via social media.  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 websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”

All the while the police have been bemoaning the fact that Blackberry Messenger is a “closed system” meaning they had no intelligence of what was going on.

It almost feels like the police are taking the ability to tap communications for granted!