Is it right for the government to monitor social media after the London Riots?

I was glad to read Facebook and Twitter representatives are going to help the police learn about social networks and how they can monitor them for signs of trouble, especially after my recent post on the London Riots.

Public chatter on the internet was what made me thirsty for information on Google. I was refreshing the homepage every 30 minutes and craving for the latest video uploads. Unable to sleep I sifted through the information shocked and appalled, but at least I was reading information from reliable news sources, unlike the information on my news feed on Facebook and my timeline on Twitter! What a load of rubbish that was!

Online friends were posting status' that sounded naive, stupid and racist. They was also posting manipulative things to lead other internet users on to the point where I thought the riots had started  in MK. One status said 'there is a fire in Sainsbury's, Bletchley!!!'. I drove past Sainsbury's with my friend and there was no fire, but admittedly there was several riot officers. Granted this made me feel instantly safer BUT and it is a big but... if people in the MK area had not been posting misleading information would the police have been at Sainsbury's?

Besides false and inaccurate networking, another issue with social media throughout the riots was the fact looters was using it to arrange their movements. This explains the vast amount of broadcasts I received on my Blackberry Messenger stating that the free messaging service was due to be barred- more false information! I was still pinging my BBM contacts as normal.

Although the police cannot restrict false status' and tweets, they can crack down on criminal behaviour on these networks. For example the manufacturer RIM (Research in Motion) provides solutions for access to instant messaging such as BBM and they have already carried out negotiations with Saudi Arabia and India to monitor users messages.

I don't know how I feel about this sense of 'monitoring'...

From a western perspective it is understandable a middle- eastern country would monitor users particularly when North Korea have banned their internet altogether, but how can our country- a country that is passionate for human rights and equality and a country that has criticized others for their lack of internet usage, then decide to censor an individuals phone or social media. Surely this is taking some aspect of freedom away especially as we don't know where the police will be searching.

What do you think about this crackdown on social media? I suppose I do not consider myself lucky coming from a place like England. I should be thankful for the government not restricting the internet altogether.