Network effects: Social media’s role in the London riots

When the riots happened everyone were looking for a culprit, with some blaming Twitter and Facebook, and others pinning the violence on BlackBerry and its instant messaging abilities.

Malcolm Gladwell has pointed out these kinds of riots and uprisings have been happening for centuries, without the need for Twitter or Facebook or BlackBerry’s BBM. But while they may not cause revolutions, there’s no question that these kinds of mobile, real-time networks and technologies can help to fuel them when they occur. social media tools may not be a trigger for such events, but they can clearly act as “an accelerant.”

 The difference with Twitter and Facebook is that they are always on,

 and real-time in a way that even television often isn’t.

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/08/08/how-blackberry-not-twitter-fuelled-the-fire-under-londons-riots/