Comms: the use and abuse of mobiles in disorder

Last week, UK police found that the fears of security agencies in Indonesia, the UAE and India were not unfounded as rioters used the encrypted Blackberry messaging service to organise the location of rioters and to distribute information on police movements and tactics.

In some countries, Blackberry has been threatened with being banned from the market unless government agencies are provided with access to the encrypted messages.

Several days ago, the 102 Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in San Francisco discovered that disorder was threatened and, to prevent the distribution of messages to and by those using the rail system, it temporarily shut down its in-tunnel transmitters.

The California incident has raised questions: the Federal Communications Commission says that it is looking into whether BART has the right to suspend its comms service. Some commentators claim that in doing so, BART acted to breach the right to free speech as protected by the US Constitution although that seems to be something of a stretch.

In the UK, smartphones were used to send messages via services such as Facebook and Twitter and the UK government has said that it is considering whether it would be possible to block access to social networks and SMS during disorder.

That will be easier said than done: there are millions of social network-type systems : they are simple and very cheap to set up. And there is no need to use them because there are millions of websites that allow posting of "comments" which can be used for a similar purpose.

Blocking mobile phone access would create a significant risk: those without access to a landline would have no access to call emergency services. While that would work in a railway system, to close the mobile network across a large open area would pose serious challenges. Also, a significant part of the law enforcement community relies on mobile phones in preference to radios which are more prone to blackspots and interference.

Yesterday, two men were jailed for four years for inciting riot: they posted messages on Facebook in pages called Smash Down Northwich Town and Let’s Have a Riot in Latchford. Jordan Blackshaw, 21, and Perry Sutcliffe, 22 were jailed. But Joshua Moulinie, 19, who incited rioters to damage a shop in Bream, Gloucestershire was cautioned. A 17 year old who cannot be named because of his age was made subject to a "rehabilitation order" after he incited 400 Facebook "friends" to riot in London.