London, Aug 10 (ANI): A digital adviser to London's Mayor Boris Johnson has called for the shutting down of the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service which is believed to have played a key role in helping mobilize rioters across London.
Mike Butcher, also a technology journalist said it was 'unbelievable' that the BBM service had not been disabled yet, and called on to ban the 'riot tool' immediately.
Butcher described the BBM service as 'text messaging with steroids', as Blackberry itself denied reports it had planned to disable the messenging service, the Daily Mail reports.
"It is unbelievable that UK BlackBerry is not shutting down BBM right now," he tweeted.
He said that 'mobile phones have become weaponised in their capability of spreading information about where to target next'.
"There is evidence that BBM is an encrypted, very secure, safe, fast, cheap, easy way for disaffected urban youths to spread messages for their next target," he said.
"It's like text messaging with steroids - you can send messages to hundreds of people and once it's gone from your phone it cannot be traced back to you," he added.
Butcher said police need to communicate with phone firms like BlackBerry to help anticipate future disturbances.
"BlackBerry itself has said these messages are very hard to trace. Obviously there is going to have to be some kind of communication between the police and companies like BlackBerry to try to get the information befre the riots happen," he said.
It is believed messages on the service, along with posts on Twitter, helped spread the locations of riots like wildfire and brought hordes of teenagers together to attack neighbourhoods throughout the weekend. (ANI)
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