to wonder if the goverment should close down facebook and twitter for a couple of days, to calm things down

[carriedababi]

perhaps if fb and twitter was closed for a couple of days, not saing forever, thne things would die down a bit and the police would be able to regain control.

Yeah cos cutting off Facebook, Twitter & the Internet really worked in Egypt didn't it? They all just thought "Ah fuck it, let's go home I've no 3G signal"

As ideas go, this one is pretty fucking stupid.

Err...no.

Might slow things down a bit

It wont, because they are mainly using BBM or mobiles. They don't want the police to get ahead of their plans.

Also, they still can't. It's still technically not possible.

Anyway I'm for natal DNA databases, CCTV , and chemical castration for life of sex predators

National sorry on ipod

and I'm all for free marmite for everyone.

the leaders are suing blackberry. The police are working together with Blackberry Research in Motion to gain information of where the BBM are starting from.

OP i agree with you on CCTV. Many are taking it as a joke about the riots and are laughing about joining in on FB. If they are later on tonight, seen down where the trouble is, i agree that being involved with organised violence, should carry a further penalty.

The rest you quoted would be open to abuse and would cause more trouble, than they would solve.

No way! The weeds in my virtual farm would get out of control and the food in my virtual restaurant would burn in the virtual ovens...not to mention my virtual pets would all die...

Oh, and I might actually get a life!

On a serious note, less all-about-me, I don't think it would achieve anything at this point (use of Blackberries, yada yada yada), plus it smacks of censorship. Wouldn't this sort of totalitarian statement need to come several steps down the line after imposing martial law?

Hummm...not a road we really want to go down...

Can you imagine the rioting that would break out if communications networks were shut down?

Hahaha, I can see it now, furious business people unable to share information about the financial crisis which makes burning London and Birmingham seem as important as nail varnish splattered across a lake of nail varnish remover!

If you "shut down" FB and Twitter (or, God forbid, Mumsnet - cheers for that nightmarish thought, Pandemoniaa!), communication would migrate to other networks, so soon we'd see links as diverse as hotmail and Reuters shut down, as why would you stop, once you started shutting down communications? Then UK-based investors would lose the chance to sell out of any financial markets fall, or buy into any financial markets recovery, and they would, quite rightly bring down the government which decided "to calm things down".

Communication channels are not just used by yobs. It is used by normal people (we are gossiping about the riots, aren't we?), by businesses, by relatives worried about their family members in affected areas.