A tale of two Twitters: one good, one lawless

Just as the immediacy and ubiquity of social networking has helped rapidly spread the anarchy, it has also been seized on with equal fervour by ravaged communities desperate to fight back with mass clean-ups.

Along with instant messaging such as via BlackBerry smart phones, Twitter has helped spread the looters' rallying call by transmitting rants such as: "I want a riot in south london! I'll tief frm every post office n bank there is!!"

It has also provided chilling advance warning to targeted communities about their impending fate. Carlos Taylor, a painter in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, said: "A friend said to me last night an hour before the riots started that something was going to kick off, because he had seen it on Twitter."

Elsewhere, Twitter was also used to spread calls for a riot in Southampton. A message promised "bigger and better" scenes of carnage than London. It stated: "Let's beat these Londoners and show them how it's done."

The message ordered looting rioters to "smash and take everything" during the violence planned for Friday. It ended by saying ominously: "Pass this message on to all your contacts."

Hampshire Constabulary is investigating. A spokesman said: "It is an offence to commit or encourage riot."

Angie Bray, MP for Ealing Central and Acton in west London, also warned of the threat posed by criminals using such websites: "We are talking about rioting that was organised by social networks, so can pop up unpredictably. I know police were looking at Twitter last night and they are working with BlackBerry to look at those ways of communicating."

In Liverpool, Steve Munby, the city council's Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, who represents riot-scarred Toxteth, said the instant riot Tweets had destroyed decades of work since the area's unrest 30 years ago. He said criminals were were using Twitter to help mobilise rioters quickly. Tweets were going around and being sent to kids from anonymous sources," he said. "Some of the activity going on Facebook and Twitter is criminal and we need to identify who has been doing it and charge them.

"This is not a matter of local youths and the police having a ruck and it getting out of control. This was a highly mobile group. It's organised thieving."

In the aftermath of the devastation, some of those using Twitter to co-ordinate clean-up efforts called themselves the "Riot Wombles" and used the hashtag #riotwombles to arrange meeting times and places.

One, using the Twitter handle "Ladypaperclip", wrote: "Sitting in the bus lane outside the station with dozens of #riotwombles waiting for the police to let us into #claphamjunction."

An account on Twitter called "@riotcleanup" attracted more than 18,000 followers in a matter of hours and was helping people co-ordinate their efforts.

In Peckham, south London, people came to the looted High Street armed with dustpans and brushes after learning about the clean-up operation on Twitter.

One woman in her 20s said: "I was really angry so I thought I'd channel my anger in a constructive way. We have never met each other before, we just spoke on Twitter this morning"On Merseyside, a "Liverpool Clean Up" Facebook page set up by bartender Charles Jupiter led to 100 people turning up in Toxteth at 9am yesterday - in response to his call to "bring a brush and Marigold gloves".

A local Asda supermarket donated brushes, the Co-op provided bin bags and two local cafes offered free tea and coffee.

"I thought, 'Not in my city'," Mr Jupiter said. "People were posting, 'I'm embarrassed to be English. I'm embarrassed to be from London or Liverpool'.

"I re-posted and said, 'I'm not. That's why I'm going out there to help clean up'."

Professor Rodney Barker, emeritus professor of government at the London School of Economics, said the Twitter- generation rioters marked a new era. He said: "You have groups who are highly technically integrated, but socially completely outclassed and alienated."