Could the amount of privacy that social network Google+ offers be a bonus for rioters but a nightmare for the authorities?
I’ve been taking a good look at the Google+ User Content and Conduct Policy and whilst it’s fairly explicit in stating that you must not “use our products to engage in illegal activities or promote dangerous and illegal acts” the Google+ privacy policy mentions nothing of the search giant policing, viewing or censoring the content that gets added (not that you’d expect to see that of course).
What Google+ does instead is puts the onus on the users themselves to self-police and report abuse, spam, hate speech, copyright or whatever.
A bit about Circles
For those that haven’t got on to Google+ to give it a spin yet, here’s a quick primer:
Facebook still chanks Google+ on many social media aspects but for me, the greatest advance (and what makes it great) is the ability to create ‘Circles’ and assign the members of your network to specific circles and then choose which of these circles get specific posts, thus reducing the potential inbox banality to an acceptable, tolerable and almost enjoyable level.
Rioting Chums
So, bearing in mind you can create a private “circle” of likeminded people and and then broadcast solely and privately to them with absolutely no restriction, does this make Google+ the perfect social media choice for rioters?
Whilst I’d be very surprised to see Google develop a Google+ app for Blackberry I’d give it no more than a couple of months before one appears from somewhere. Now that’ll be interesting.
London 2012
Next summer, London is ravaged by rioters mobilised by a private “Rioting Chums” circle on Google+.
Imagine the shitstorm that one would cause. Google’s motto is “Do no evil” but there will be hundreds of uses for Google+ that don’t stick to this.
What should Google do?
