Following the social unrest during the summer that swept England with help of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger, a poll shows that 70 percent of adults support the restriction of such services during such events. Only 27 percent disagreed, The Guardian reports.
Perhaps more notably, 75 percent said that the government has the right to open access to social network data to prevent crimes. Unsurprisingly, younger adults were more likely to be against such measures and older citizens were more supportive.
The poll by the online security firm Unisys is interesting given a report by The Guardian that pored over 2.5 million Twitter updates. The Guardian‘s study cast doubts on the rationale to ban or restrict the use of social networks, given usage of social media was mostly related to reaction to the riots, not its planning.
What do you think about this poll? Is it right for a government to use social media data to track domestic activity? Should usage of these tools be restricted?