Friday, March 27, 2009

Cat and Mouse: Social Networks Help Protesters and Police

In a classic study of the power of online communications, social networking sites such as Twitter will be used both by protesters of the G20 meeting in London and by law enforcement to monitor the protesters:

"Marina Pepper, one of the organizers of G20 Meltdown, said that Twitter, the blogging tool that allows short updates to be filed, published and read via cellphones, would be used to coordinate the protests -- and warn participants of possible trouble.

"In terms of mobilizing people and shifting them around, Twitter will be used next week," Pepper told CNN. "We can also keep people empowered, because information is power."

"But Commander Simon O'Brien, one of the senior officers involved in policing security around the G20, said social networking sites would also be a "key area of our intelligence gathering."

"That's where we are picking up a lot of our intelligence about numbers and what certain groups are aiming to achieve," O'Brien said."


Protesters, police go online in G20 battle

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