UK citizens support closure of Facebook and Twitter during riots

Nearly half of UK citizens support the shutdown of social sites like Facebook or Twitter if civil unrest similar to the July riots were to happen again, according to new research.

Unisys polled 973 adults in the UK and found that 48 per cent would back temporary blocks on social networks to prevent the medium being used to co-ordinate criminal activity.

A similar number of those surveyed, 46 per cent, said that authorities should be able to access data from social networks if it improves public safety.

The research revealed that the UK public is willing to part with some privacy and even internet access if it supports law and order.

UK citizens have apparently expressed anxiety in the past over any intrusion into their private lives, campaigning against initiatives such as the ID card scheme, as well as hidden changes to social networks that affect their privacy.

Members of the public also opposed the Digital Economy Act, which threatens to cut off illegal downloaders from the internet after multiple offences, because they believe that internet access should be a universal human right.

However, Jonathan Polnay, a barrister in criminal law and member of the Bar Council's IT Committee, told V3 that the public is not changing its attitude to the web or privacy.

"I just think they want to make sure criminals get caught," he said.

Polnay drew a line between the police shutting down social networks in the event of social unrest, and snooping on individuals' social network activity to see whether they are likely to cause trouble.

While the former is allowed under the Civil Contingencies Act, police are not allowed to snoop on private social media activity without a court order.

"When we look at computer security, lots of laws in this country go back years and police are not geared up to the digital age in the way they need to be," said Polnay.

"Police with warrants can intercept telephone conversations, but this can't be applied to BlackBerry Messenger or social networks during unrest as there are too many conversations taking place at once."

However, Polnay warned that the public's willingness to allow the police to snoop on private internet activity does not mean this should become policy.

"It's just like the majority of people support the death penalty in the UK, but it will never happen," he said.