Did social media play a significant role in the riots in London this summer? Opinions seem to be divided. While Prime Minister Cameron considered temporarily blocking social media, a police chief indicated that social media, and Twitter in particular, played a positive role as a source of information for the police. The riots demonstrate the ambivalent attitude of governments towards social media . During the revolutions in the Middle East, social media were praised for the fact that they enable citizens to organise themselves and rebel against dictatorial regimes. In London, the same social media were accused of rioters organising themselves online. Same platforms ecuador phone number list different country and intentions. What remains is that the media are neutral platforms in themselves. Just like a telephone or fax. They can be used with good and bad intentions.
Murder
When researching this article, I initially didn't think of murder in relation to social media. But thanks to several articles I came across on the subject, I can't avoid including it. Last month, a female journalist in Mexico was killed by a drug cartel because of her posts about drug trafficking on social networks. In Florida, a fight between two girls, fought out via social media, ultimately led to the death of one of the rivals . A woman who changed her Facebook status from 'married' to 'single' was murdered by her husband (who then committed suicide). And a teenager murdered his father because he forbade the use of MySpace. The list of bizarre social media-related murders goes on. The chance of becoming a victim of this yourself is of course extremely small. Small consolation is that you are more likely to become a victim of identity theft or a scam.
Police active on social media
The rise of social media in crime has not gone unnoticed by police forces worldwide. In the Netherlands, there are national teams that deal with combating cybercrime and every police force has specialists in the field of digital investigation. There is even a detective on the youth platform Habbo Hotel. Young people can contact him with questions or if they have experienced something bad. The New York police have a unit that monitors social media for indications of criminal behavior. Some criminals appear to be so stupid as to announce their plans in advance on social media or brag about them afterwards. Mashable made an extensive overview of methods that the police use to combat crime via social media . Nice examples are placing most wanted posters on Facebook pages and setting up fake accounts that are used to make friends with gangsters.
If you have experience with one or more of the above forms of cybercrime, please share your 'lessons learned' in the comments!