Weekly Social Media Update
Riots and social media
After a week of violent riots across the country, initially sparked by the police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, north London, the use of social media, especially Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry have come under attack. The use of these services to organise the riots, particularly in London have caused the government and the police to question whether social media can be ‘shut down’ when riots such as these strike. This confirms the government’s little of understanding of the ways in which these global platforms are used and how damaging ‘censoring’ social media could be. We have learnt from the anti-government demonstrations in Egypt earlier this year that shutting down networks such as Vodafone have only led to wide criticism. Let’s see how the debate unfolds.
DCR Music
Damon Alban recently travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, leading a group of producers aiming to produce an album in seven days to raise money for Oxfam’s work there. The DRC is home to one of the world’s most humanitarian crises. Oxfam and Damon have set up a cool blog on Tumblr so you can follow the project. They have been posting pictures of jam sessions, home-made instruments and some tracks. Follow the project here and get social for a good cause.
Google + introduces social gaming
Yesterday Google announced that it had begun rolling out a games button, with 16 social games to play, including Angry Birds, Zynya Poker and Sudoko. Users can invite contacts from their ‘circles’ to play games together online. Get addicted with Google +.
Tags: Damon Alban, DRC Music, Google, Oxfam, riots, Social Gaming, Social Media, Tumblr