London Riots: Social Media Mobilizes Riot Cleanup

 by Erica Swallow

After days of riots in London, thousands of Londoners and worldwide supporters are taking to social networks to help reclaim the streets of London.

While rioters took to the underground paths of BlackBerry Messenger to organize, the highly spreadable mediums ofTwitter and Facebook have shown to be the perfect platforms for mobilizing cleanup organizers and followers in the early aftermath of the rioting.

For the most part, organization has been very smooth, with a few key hubs across social platforms taking root. The @RiotCleanup Twitter page has amassed more than 50,000 followers in fewer than 10 hours and is consistently broadcasting cleanup locations and times, along with other pertinent information regarding the initiative.

On Facebook, a similar page has emerged as the central location for information on the world’s largest social network.

And for a more static look at where the action is, riotcleanup.co.uk is being constantly updated with cleanup location information. In an email interview with Ian, the creator of the website and resident of rural Shropshire, England, he explained:

“I was sitting at home following the #londonriots hashtag — then I saw #riotcleanup start to appear. I am not in London, but wanted to do something. Near enough simultaneously, I registered riotcleanup.co.uk as someone else got the Twitter account @riotcleanup going. Then, I just knocked something together as fast as possible and uploaded it!”

Beyond the riot cleanup, another effort to catch and prosecute looters has taken root, with the Tumblr account “Catch A Looter” accepting and posting images of looters for identification.

For Londoners like Heather Taylor and Cheska Moon (pictured above), deciding to volunteer time to help rebuild their community happened in the matter of minutes.

Taylor told Mashable, “I saw the [#riotcleanup] hashtag spring up and thought, ‘We need to have a cleanup in Clapham.’ So, [I] set the time for 9:00 at Nandos, which got passed around.” About 400 volunteers showed up to the cleanup in Clapham, and the local Sainsbury’s pitched in by distributing food to volunteers, Taylor said.

Taylor is just one of thousands of volunteers spreading word of the cleanup initiatives that are taking place all over London.

Below is a look at some of the positive energy flowing across the social web as supporters take grasp of the situation and band together to restore order.

If you’re part of the grassroots organizing that we’re seeing take shape in London, please add to the story in the comments below.

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