{"id":3245,"date":"2011-08-16T13:44:17","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T12:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richardlittledale.wordpress.com\/?p=3245"},"modified":"2011-08-16T13:44:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T12:44:17","slug":"antisocial-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/2011\/08\/16\/antisocial-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Antisocial media?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Of budgies and waterfights<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Put yourself in the position of an overstretched police force. \u00a0You have fewer officers than you want patrolling more area than you can reasonably manage, and now you have the virtual highways and byways of cyberspace to patrol too. With handheld mobile devices playing a key role in the spread of recent UK riots, the police are turning their attention to social media as never before. The assistant\u00a0Chief\u00a0Constable of one Police Force has already said that\u00a0\u201cIf people use social networking sites inappropriately to stimulate rumours we will do our best to track the individuals down and if they have committed offences under criminal law we will deal with them.” \u00a0This has already led to a slightly jittery response with one man held for questioning over arranging a water fight. If this proves to be as innocent as the person in question claims, charges will doubtless be dropped.<\/p>\n Interestingly, though, the same Police Force also put out a plea for help over a rather less pressing matter:<\/p>\n