Riot-ravaged Londoners have turned to social networks in a bid to kick-start the recovery and clean-up operation after last night’s looting rampage across the capital and further afield.
Social media has been blamed for helping to organise the riots, notably via BlackBerry’s messaging services, but ordinary Twitter users have grouped together to organise a clean-up operation and to try and identify criminals.
On Twitter, a #riotcleanup hashtag and those controlling a @riotcleanup account are organising times and meeting points for people able to help.
A separate site – riotcleanup.co.uk, although it appears to be offline – has also been launched giving locations and times of community meetings and calling for willing helpers to bring brooms, bin bags and duct tape in a bid to put communities back on their feet.
The site should, according to its host be back up shortly. Having been swamped by demand, the entry-level service site is being moved onto a better hosting package.
“To clarify, problem not bandwidth – shared hosting product is only entry and was totally over-whelmed by your support for #riotcleanup,” host 34SP posted on Twitter.
Catch a looter
Meanwhile, vigilante group sites have also appeared, aiming to name and shame looters caught on camera as shops – large and small – were ransacked and stripped bare by the mobile mobs
Websites such as Catch a looter and London Rioters were trying to identify people involved in acts of robbery and violence.
The sites are displaying videos and photos of people involved in the scenes and urging the public to put names to faces.
The web was an obvious source for news throughout the night of violence, with Google mapping riot flashpoints.
Its London riots map highlights all known and verified incidents of violence or looting.
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