Social media ‘not to blame’ for inciting rioters

08 Dec 2011 A study of 2.4 million Twitter messages from the time of the riots has found that politicians and other commentators were wrong to claim the website played an important role in inciting and organising the disturbances. A multidisciplinary team led by Professor Rob Procter from The University of Manchester in a JISC funded study found that instead, Twitter was a force for good, helping to mobilise the post-riot clean up. It is published today (8 December) in the Guardian newspaper as part of its Reading the Riots investigation. Professor Procter, who is based at The University's Manchester e-Research Centre, said: "In August this year, social unrest spilled over onto the streets of English cities and the summer riots were the largest public disorder events in recent history. "Politicians and commentators were quick to claim that social media played an important role in inciting and organising riots, calling for sites such as Twitter to be closed should events of this nature happen again. "But our study found no evidence of significance in the available data that would justify such a course action in respect to Twitter. "In contrast, we do find strong evidence that Twitter was a valuable tool for mobilising support for the post-riot clean up and for organising specific clean up activities.