Social media will be left untouched in times of trouble

Home Secretary Theresa May has dropped the idea of pulling the plug on social networking sites during riots.

Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal that services be restricted to stop people organising civil disturbances did not feature in talks last week with the social media industry about how best to respond to concerns over instant communications.

Instead, discussions with representatives from social media and communications leaders including Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry focused on how the authorities might use social networking to engage and communicate with the population during times of emergency.

Social media companies used the meeting - which included Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and representatives from the Association of Chief Police Officers - to advise Police to hire internet monitoring firms to help keep an eye on public web postings. 

"We welcome the fact that this was a dialogue about working together to keep people safe rather than about imposing new restrictions on internet services," said a spokesperson from Facebook. "The Home Secretary set the tone clearly that we were not there to discuss restricting Internet services."

For its part, the social media giant went on to claim it had rules in place for stopping illegal content but that it sometimes needed to be more vigilant or react faster when there are exceptional circumstances, such as the atrocity in Norway and during the English riots.

Twitter said its services were a good way to distribute crucial updates and to dispel rumours in time of crisis. "People also use [our service] as the first place to get information, monitor quickly changing events in real-time, and connect with friends, family and their communities," said the company.

Research in Motion, the firm behind the BlackBerry, called the meeting "positive and productive," adding it had been asked to consult on the use of social media to "engage and communicate during times of emergency" - not limit its use.

However, a survey of 2,000 people by research firm MBA found half of them supported a temporary shutdown of social media - although one third said social media sites were their primary news source during the riots.