With the protests in the Middle East that dominated the headlines earlier this year, Twitter and Facebook were credited with rallying the masses. They provided an easy way to rally people very quickly, broadcasting details about the protests. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, however, BBM messages are largely untraceable by the authorities. BlackBerry automatically encrypts messages sent to another person’s BlackBerry when using their PIN — this means that the messages cannot be intercepted by a government or mobile network. As such the service has become very popular in the Middle East where it is used to criticize authorities, which explains why Saudi Arabia and the UAE tried to block BBM and other functions last year.
So how has BBM been used during the London riots?
It’s been used in fundamentally the same way as one might use Twitter, with widespread calls to action being broadcast to groups of contacts, except under PIN protection. One BBM broadcast sent on Sunday and shown to the Guardian called for people from all over London to vandalize shops on Oxford Street and to attack the police. It read: “Everyone from all sides of London meet up at the heart of London (central) OXFORD CIRCUS!!, Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed up so come get some (free stuff!!!) fuck the feds we will send them back with OUR riot! >:O Dead the ends and colour war for now so if you see a brother… SALUT! if you see a fed… SHOOT!”. Another message read: “Everyone in edmonton enfield wood green everywhere in north link up at enfield town station at 4 o clock sharp!!!!”
It has been reported that BBM was also used to rally those elsewhere in London and in Birmingham.
What is BlackBerry doing about it?
Clearly the riots are not BlackBerry’s fault, but given the high penetration of BlackBerry phones amongst the age group that are largely causing the disturbances and the fact that BBM cannot be monitored in the way that Facebook and Twitter can be, BlackBerry has been under pressure to respond. Before the trouble flared up yesterday afternoon, the UK BlackBerry account tweeted: “We feel for those impacted by this weekend’s riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can.”
RIM also released an extended statement where Patrick Spence, managing director of global sales and regional marketing, added: “As in all markets around the world where BlackBerry is available, we co-operate with local telecommunications operators, law enforcement and regulatory officials. Similar to other technology providers in the UK we comply with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and co-operate fully with the Home Office and UK police forces.”
The furor couldn’t have come at a worse time for RIM, which has just announced plans to layoff 2,000 of its 19,000 employees.
What else could be done?
In order to cooperate with the police further, RIM would have to hand over its customers’ private data that it is contractually obliged to protect. This is something that it wouldn’t do without a court order. If such an order were to be issued, then it might hand over email addresses, BBM nicknames and the contents of BBM messages.
Just as social media is used to organise people to negative effect, it’s also used by the anti-riot movement — with BBM, Twitter and Facebook being used to warn and inform Londoners of places to avoid and what to do if their neighbourhood is affected. Hashtags such as #riotcleanup and #riotwombles have emerged on Twitter, and it won’t be long before we’ll see anti-riot messages emerge on BBM from people — young and old — who disagree with the violence and looting and want to reclaim their streets.
© Wired
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