RIM, Facebook and Twitter face more riot talks

COMMUNICATIONS FIRMS Research in Motion (RIM), Facebook and Twitter will meet with the UK Parliament again to discuss what happened during recent troubles in the UK, and presumably what could happen if violence starts again.

A meeting scheduled for tomorrow will see Stephen Bates, RIM managing director for the UK and Ireland giving his views on "policing large scale disorder", according to a note on the Home Affairs committee parliamentary calender.

Others set to attend the same session, though earlier in the day, are senior police representatives from across the country, according to the Financial Times, while Facebook and Twitter representatives will also be there.

This is not the first time that the firms have spoken with the UK Parliament about how their systems might have been used by troublemakers.

Earlier talks were just general discussions, according to the companies, and the nasty business of shutting down their systems at government request during times of trouble never came up.

However, shortly after the riots stopped the police admitted that they had used the services, notably the Blackberry Messenger application, to monitor for and prevent trouble.

"We did contemplate, I contemplated, asking the authorities to switch it off. The legality of that is very questionable and additionally, it is also a very useful intelligence asset," said acting Metropolitan Police commissioner Tim Godwin at the time. µ