In a somewhat ironic bow to pressure applied via a Facebook petition, the Government is currently reviewing the rights of rioters to receive public benefits. Though a potentially extreme move, this does call in to question what may be deemed the ‘positive’ use of social media to start a movement (such as the glorious ‘brooms-up’ restoration work) and what may be deemed ‘negative’.

There is no doubt the looting and violence of the past few days has been abhorrent, however, a careful path must be trod when considering what restrictions may be applied to social media connections, and by whom they may be applied. The house has called in representatives of the major social networks with a view to revising Government access to private messaging platforms (such as BBN) and the restriction of access for those seen to be ‘abusing’ those platforms to organise criminal activity. Certainly, in recent online history, should a user have been seen to be demonstrating aggressive or unwelcome behaviour on internet chat forums, that user would swiftly find themselves ejected from said forum. Similarly, the file sharing services that enable illegal music downloads have seen not only themselves, but their users, receive punishments ranging from copyright infringement court battles, to removal of personal subscription to an IP.

However, where do we draw the line at ‘abuse’? In Egypt, protesters circumvented the communication restrictions applied by their Government by organising themselves via Facebook et al. Though this behaviour may have formed the template for the, frankly apolitical behaviour we have subsequently suffered in the UK, the protests in Egypt have been viewed, by some external parties, as a move to overthrow an oppressive regime. Naturally any individuals found to be breaking the law should be correctly prosecuted, however, does that mean being informed is the same as making the choice to act? The best course of action might be to wait for fires to die down and the dust to settle on the cities of Britain before we move forward.