Met Chief considered shutting Twitter during London riots
Metropolitan Police acting commissioner Tim Godwin told MPs today that he and his senior management team considered shutting down Twitter ‘a few times’ during the London riots.
He added that they did not because they discovered the police did not have legal power to do so.
Speaking before the Home Affairs Committee, Godwin also revealed that he had meetings with the government over whether the law should be changed to allow police forces to disable social networking sites at times of crisis.
Last week, David Cameron said that social media sites could be closed if they were being used to incite violence.
Keith Vaz, the committee's chair, is reported to have said that the option should be looked at because it allowed people to turn up at very short notice to demonstrate and riot.