Social media didn’t start the fire: proposals for the temporary shutdown of social media during riots are unlikely to prevent further unrest

Abstract

The impact of the riots that took place across England last month are still reverberating. We have seen long sentences handed down for those involved and rhetoric from the government on the social media that was seen to have helped rioters organise themselves. Paul Reilly evaluates these accusations and concludes that a focus on the disruptive potential of social media obscures the need for an inquest into the contexts and motivations of those who riot