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"In a meeting Thursday with representatives from Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry-maker RIM, British officials made it clear that they will not restrict social media use during times of chaos.\n\"This was a dialogue about working together to keep people safe rather than about imposing new restrictions on Internet services,\" a Facebook representative said in a statement.\nPrime Minister David Cameron gave a reason to fear otherwise when, following riots that swept through the UK earlier this month, he told Parliament that the government was examining whether to ban suspected troublemakers from social media. \nIn anticipation of the meeting between UK officials and representatives of Twitter, Facebook and RIM \u2014 all of which make tools that were used by some to coordinate violence during the riots \u2014 human rights groups wrote an open letter to the British Home Secretary regarding Cameron's comments.\nAlthough fears that the UK would create restrictions on social media were dispelled, there was some conversation about how law enforcement might gain more access to information shared on social networks and between BlackBerry devices.\nGordon Scobbie, a senior police officer who leads the force's social media efforts and attended the meeting, told The New York Times that Twitter, for example, might consider compelling people to use their real names instead of anonymous handles and that RIM has already agreed to provide the police with information from BlackBerry Messenger under some circumstances. \n\u201CWhen people use a telephone, under certain circumstances, law enforcement has a means of intercepting that,\u201D he told The Times. \u201CJust because it\u2019s different media, we shouldn\u2019t stand back and say, \u2018We don\u2019t play in that space.\u2019 \u201D \nImage courtesy of Flickr, Steve Punter"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/08/26/uk-twitter-facebook-rim/>