Social media have been hailed as a tool of anti-authorian protesters in Iran, the Middle East and elsewhere. But in the current British riots they have taken on a darker tone. Reports indicate that Research in Motion's Blackberry instant messaging service has been used by looters and rioters to communicate and co-ordinate activities in London and other cities and at least and at least one politician wants a temporary ban on the BlackBerry Messenger system. David Lammy, a British parliamentarian, has called on RIM to suspend BlackBerry Messenger service because he feels it is helping rioters organize and creating difficulties for police because such messages are encrypted. RIM has said it will help authorities in Britain deal with rioters. The company did not respond to queries on whether it is open to temporarily shutting down its messaging service or helping police decipher messages.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself "Team Poison" hacked into RIM's official BlackBerry blog and posted a message threatening to divulge the addresses, names and phone numbers of RIM employees to the public and rioters if it gives British police access to things such as messages, user locations and customer information.
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