Abusing the Power

Watching the news this week, seeing new reports of violence in England pop up online is making me a little scared and more than a little teary.

I've just come back to Australia after spending 6 months living in Leeds in the UK. Leeds is a small city and large borough of Yorkshire. The inner city area where I was living is largely populated by students and young people which made it a really fun place to live.

This is what is happening in Leeds this week.


Youths will be youth, but what is astounding about these events is how they have been orchestrated through social media or mobile phones. Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger have been singled out as the main tools used to organise rioters.

There is a lot of controversy here because everyone is pointing a finger, rushing to say that this is just the cherry on top of the negative influences of social media. It is true - social media does allow events to snowball and reach climactic levels that would otherwise be impossible.

But it is this same reason that will assist in things being put right again. Already there have been clean ups organised by Twitter, support groups formed on Facebook, groups urging people to identify looters and both are now being used to circulate an e-petition calling for all convicted rioters to loose all financial benefits.

We have to remember social media is a powerful tool and, as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility.