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RIM Assisting UK Police Investigations into BlackBerry Use During London Riots
Published on:
Research in Motion's UK division has found itself in an uncomfortable position after the popularity of its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) amongst young adults was held up as an example of how the riots that have swept parts of London for the past couple of days were coordinated.
The Blackberry, once a tool of business has become very popular with young adults recently thanks to lower cost handsets and the usually unlimited messaging quota available via the BBM service.
Over the past couple of nights of disturbances, it has been claimed that gangs of youths who were less interested in a political protest than in simply stealing as much as they can during the disturbances had shared messages about the best places to congregate and how to avoid the police.
Responding to the reports, RIM's UK division issued a statement: "We feel for those impacted by this weekend's riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can. As in all markets around the world where BlackBerry is available, we cooperate with local telecommunications operators, law enforcement and regulatory officials. Similar to other technology providers in the UK we comply with The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and co-operate fully with the Home Office and UK police forces."
The willingness of RIM to assist police authorities in the UK may however raise questions about why it found it so difficult to enable security services in other countries have access to messages sent across the BlackBerry servers.
Tags: [research in motion] [blackberry] [blackberry messenger] [london] [bbm] [UK]
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