British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, center, and Tottenham MP David Lammy.
(Stefan Rousseau - AFP/Getty Images)
Rioters in London have apparently chosen BlackBerry Messenger as the service of choice to coordinate attacks, leading one British politician, David Lammy, to call for the service to be suspended.
Lammy represents Tottenham, the area that has been the epicenter of the riots since a fatal police shooting on Saturday, The Washington Post reported. Revolutionaries and protesters have used Twitter to communicate their ideas with one another and the outside world. Rioters have reportedly been using BlackBerry Messenger because it is widely used but also encrypted and private.
On his Twitter feed Tuesday, Lammy said that although he understands that the service is also being used to locate missing people, the closed nature of BBM has made the service more dangerous than other services such as Twitter.
Immediate action needed. LDNers cannot have another evening like last night tonight. BBM clearly helping rioters outfox Police. Suspend it.
David Lammy
DavidLammy
For its part, BlackBerry has said that it is working with authorities and will do whatever it can to assist them.
We feel for those impacted by the riots in London. We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can.
BlackBerry UK
UK_BlackBerry
On Tuesday, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron deployed more than 10,000 police officers to stop the riots that have spread through London and called for an emergency session of Parliament, The Washington Post reported.
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