The UK riots currently heard around the world may get the cone of silence. The UK Prime Minister wants to keep what his London police do a secret from the rest of the world. So, he proposed to cut off Londers’ access to facebook and twitter. Either way, something is about to blow up. Details after the jump.
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U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed that his government is looking at ways of banning people from using social networking services if they are suspected of planning criminal activity.

Following riots which took place throughout England over the last week, Cameron said that the government is examining the possibility of stopping suspected rioters from spreading messages online.

Throughout the riots, it became evident that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) was a service being widely used to organize disturbances, while Facebook and Twitter were said to have played roles in the organization of the riots. Indeed, at least one teen who allegedly tried to incite a riot using Facebook was arrested.

In a statement to parliament on Thursday, Cameron said:

Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck 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.

I have also asked the police if they need any other new powers.

He added, “Police were facing a new circumstance where rioters were using the BlackBerry Messenger service, a closed network, to organise riots. We’ve got to examine that and work out how to get ahead of them.”

The Guardian reports that Cameron said Home Secretary Theresa May is to meet with Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion within the next few weeks to discuss their roles in helping to prevent future incidents.

Cameron also encouraged Facebook and Twitter to remove any posts, photos and videos that could incite further disturbances. “All of them should think about their responsibility and about taking down those images,” he said. “There was an awful lot of hoaxes and false trails made on Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger and the rest of it. We need a major piece of work to make sure that the police have all the technological capabilities they need to hunt down and beat the criminals.”

While it certainly appears that Facebook, Twitter and BBM were all used to help organize the riots, there are doubts over the legality of Cameron’s plan to ban suspects rather than convicted criminals from using social networking services. That could contravene a person’s right to free speech. There is also the question of how these banning orders will be carried out when suspects could quite easily use a computer at a public library or Internet café and post to Twitter and Facebook under a pseudonym.

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