With the recent riots in London, Manchester, Liverpool and other parts of the country, it has forced people to ask how these groups of people were able to organise such mass rioting.

Many people have blamed various outlets for making the organisation easier and bringing people out in large numbers. Blackberry messenger was said to be one of the main ways in which the rioters arranged meeting points. Many called for Blackberry to turn off the messenger feature to try and deter people from organising anything. Twitter has also come under fire as a place for trouble makers to organise raids. Can we really blame the internet?

What has now come to light is what a positive effect these platforms can have on society. The Twitter account Riot Clean Up was set up in the early hours of Tuesday morning, by around 8am they had 12,000 followers. As you can see from the images below this following has grown significantly.

 

 

The idea of this Twitter account was to call for help from the people of London to help clean up their local communities after the riots the night before. Areas of London were inundated with people willing to help; with many inspiring images appearing all over the web.

 

Last night saw riots hit Manchester with popular chain stores such as Miss Selfridge being set alight. Many sister Twitter accounts to the early Riot Clean Up appeared; namely Riot Clean Up Manc, Riot Clean Up Brum and Riot Clean Up Wolv.

Facebook has also played a hand in many arrests being made, as many trouble makers tried to set up events inviting people to looting ‘parties’.

Tumblr has seen a number of different accounts set up to try naming and shaming looters (http://catchalooter.tumblr.com/) and other Tumblr sites aim to help those who were victims of violence. Many saw the video of young Ashraf Haziq, who was sat injured at the side of the road. People looked to be helping him up, for them only to use it at a guise to rob him.

A Tumblr (http://somethingniceforashraf.tumblr.com/) has been set up to try and help him, as so many were shocked by the blatant disregard for Ashraf.

Although the internet has played a part in giving the looters a platform for posting their hate, it has also relieved how the bigger society feel about their communities being destroyed and how they will not stand for it. The internet has enabled people to take back their cities and unite, in an effort to stamp out any more possible riots.

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Social Media Marketing, Twitter, YouTube