(no subject)

There seems to be a lot of FUD flying around at the moment, all because of this quote from the PM:

"When people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality. I have also asked the police if they need any other new powers. Police were facing a new circumstance where rioters were using the BlackBerry Messenger service, a closed network, to organise riots. We've got to examine that and work out how to get ahead of them."

Now, it appears that the internet has read the first sentence, ignored the rest, and is currently going "OMG David Cameron will shut down Twitter!". But if you actually read the whole thing, there's an important point in there (emphasis mine):

"[We] are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."

See?

Interestingly I can't find the first sentence of that quote ("When people are using social media for violence we need to stop them") in Hansard, and the statement on the PM's website doesn't include it either.