Comments on: Please — let’s not call these the ‘BlackBerry riots’

By: johncabell

johncabell — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:13:25 +0000

@obiie Feel free to give the authorities your messages, and let them tap your phone and rummage through your garbage of your summer home if you like. But I have a better idea: let’s regulate internet access, dole it out like a driver’s license, and let the local police handle it. And also, we can sell phones to people the way we sell guns — which in the UK, means to nobody. That will solve everything, right? Because there was no mob violence before there were BlackBerrys. Sheesh.

By: johncabell

johncabell — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:08:27 +0000

@jo5319 Rolls right off the tongue …

By: prastagus

prastagus — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:22:21 +0000

So when Iran wanted to stop Twitter for inciting riots, western countries all condemn this and force Twitter to remain open.

Now UK want to stop Blackberry and other social services due to its own riots, where is the condemnations? Pure hyprocrisy here.

By: aimithu

aimithu — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:06:53 +0000

We are happy enough to get modern technology like BlackBerry which are helping us directly to raise our voice. Let’s not blame technology for what is going in the UK or other places across the world. What we should immediatley do is to correct the wrong things we have in us.

By: mik73

mik73 — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:40:28 +0000

Wonderful, blame the means of coummunication that happens to be de rigeur this decade/century/era instead of the social reasons behind the will to riot.

That’s what tyrannies always do. Fix your social problems, people, not imaginary technical boogeymen.

PS: I don’t care if all I’m doing is exchanging recipes with a family member. Nobody, especially the government, has a right to see the contents of that message. Not in a society that inherently trusts and respects it’s own citizens. And if your living in a society that doesn’t have that trust, well as some screenwriter once wrote, “a little revolution now and then isn’t a bad thing”.

By: Nettle

Nettle — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:31:09 +0000

I suggest calling it the “BlackBerry revolution.”

By: markthomson_wi

markthomson_wi — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:27:13 +0000

I think it’s just another technology that people use, bankers, soccer-moms, teenagers, twenty-somethings, if they were that interested;

Besides this misses the point, I’m sure they could coordinate concentrations of encrypted messages to provide a map of incidents, without ever decrypting a single message.

It’s not like rioters are squirreled away or hidden in a dorm-room or slowly strolling around a crowded mall – those aren’t the signals you care about. It’s the fast-moving / slow-moving “street” based messaging you care about.

Signal tracking to some converging location is as good a tool as you need, who cares what the content is.

By: obiie

obiie — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:16:11 +0000

first . i would have to say . wow .. the process i had to go through to post a simple comment

And who ever wrote this article . well quite frankly you are wrong . I’m in london on vacation at my summer home, and watching those horrific pictures and videos . just mad me sad.. the fear and terror these hoodlum unleashed on the entire population is quite sad..
I have 2 blackberries and i don’t care if RIM looks through all my messages .. these kids have to be brought to justice ..

To who ever wrote this article .. i hope you drop your political/business agenda and look at the facts .. people in britain will do anything to ensure these people are brought to justice even if it means sifting through everyones messages .soo don’t try to play it off as a crusade against BBM .. its simply the right thing to do ..

Wake up and be more objective with your reporting
THESE RIOTS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN AS SEVERE IF THE DID NOT COMMUNICATE USING THEIR PHONES
everyone knows that a broadcast message can be disastrous when it comes to spreading havoc ..

By: Pseudonymous

Pseudonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:22:28 +0000

If we are going to call these the Blackberry Riots we should call the U.S.’s war for independence the “News Paper Revolution.”

By: jo5319

jo5319 — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:42:43 +0000

What the UK Government needs to do, is to petition for a court order to ask the cell phone company to hand over all encrypted messages involved in co-ordinating crimes — looting, burglary, vandalism. So the company will be responsible for accessing and revealing the contents of such messages, to facilitate investigation and arrest of the criminals.

You never know. Blackberry sales might go up because of the bad rep — don’t forget the cheating husbands, inside traders, etc.