UK teen arrested for illegal BBM, social media crackdown gains steam

Lending further gravity to the proposed crackdown being bandied about in British parliament, an Essex teen have been arrested for sending a BBM that ran afoul of the intense Crime Act of 2007. The 18-year old, now free on bail, allegedly used the service to encourage copycat attacks of the violent rioting that’s swept London, and is determined to seem in court on September 1st. It is the second known case to lay RIM’s private messaging service — “popular among urban teenagers” as an inexpensive texting alternative — inside the UK’s legal hotseat. For its part, the Canadian electronics maker has since reached out to police, promising to assist the investigation “whatsoever [it] can.” Although no decision has yet been made to increase law enforcement’s powers over social media services, corresponding to Twitter and Facebook, arrests like these appear to indicate a murky free speech future.

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This post is tagged: british parliament, canadian electronics, free speech, Law Enforcement, messaging service, urban teenagers