Londoners Use Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr To ‘Catch Rioters’

Police post photos of rioters on Flickr in an appeal for further information.

For opportunistic folks who used social media tools to find and jump into recent rioting and looting in London, those same tools could be used to nab them soon enough.

Londoners sickened by the violence gripping their city are using technology to fight back against this weekend’s surge of local criminality. Police and local residents in the U.K.’s capital have been taking advantage of the proliferation of smartphone cameras and using sites like Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr to post photos of thugs who joined in looting sprees in London in recent days in order to help bring them to justice.

One anonymous individual has set up catchalooter.tumblr.com, posting people’s photos of looters who no doubt thought they had avoided closed-circuit television cameras. Admittedly, most of the photos posted so far don’t show much of the culprits’ faces, but the site can at least act as a repository for those who’ve nabbed photos of miscreants. “This site does not support vigilante action,” the site says, “merely using social media to collate all images in one place.”

A Facebook page has also been set up, “Let’s catch the London 2011 rioters and looters,” where people can also post photos or videos of looting.

And the Metropolitan police have used Flickr to post photos of suspected rioters and looters in places like West Norwood and Croydon. The police need a simple repository for photos in what will likely be the biggest single criminal investigation for some time.

The Met police said earlier today that last night was the “worst [it had] seen in current memory for the unacceptable levels of widespread looting, fires and disorder.”

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Morning Tech Wrap: Apple, Nokia, Facebook

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Samsung claims to have been blindsided by news that Apple won a preliminary injunction against the sale of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe.

The South Korean electronics giant said it had never heard of Apple’s filing to a German court, and that it had not been given the chance to present its side. “Samsung is disappointed with the court’s decision and we intend to act immediately to defend our intellectual property rights through the ongoing legal proceedings in Germany and will continue to actively defend these rights throughout the world,” a Samsung spokeswoman told CNET. “The request for injunction was filed with no notice to Samsung, and the order was issued without any hearing or presentation of evidence from Samsung.”

The problems between the two companies began in April when Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung alleging a violation of intellectual property in the design of its mobile devices.

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Nokia is planning to stop selling feature phones and Symbian phones in the U.S. as it focuses on pushing its forthcoming range of Windows Phones to Americans.

In an interview with All Things Digital, the head of Nokia’s U.S. subsidiary said the company would be putting all its weight behind Windows Phones in the U.S. Nokia will also be focusing of sales through traditional wireless carriers, after previous carriers weren’t willing to subsidize or market the products.

“When we launch Windows Phones we will essentially be out of the Symbian business, the S40 business etc.,” said Nokia President Chris Weber. “It will be Windows Phone and the accessories around that. The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone, it doesn’t matter what we do [elsewhere].”

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Soon after Facebook released its new Messenger app, 9to5Mac has reported that it is hiding a video component.

A quick look at the files and code within the new Messenger has shown several references to a video calling, with filenames like “AdminVideoCall.png” dotted around undisguised. According to 9to5Mac, the code appears to be very rudimentary at this point, and there’s no certainty that the feature could be unlocked with simple tweaking in the same way the Facebook-for-iPad app was unlocked just a couple of weeks ago.

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Several reports have cited a YouTube video proclaiming that hacktivist and trolling collective Anonymous will bring down Facebook on Nov. 5. According to CNN, some members of Anonymous are calling for a complete boycott of Facebook to coincide with its own attack on the date known for Guy Fawkes Night in the U.K.

“Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your privacy setting, and deleting your account is impossible,” says the speaker on the video, using the familiar modified voice often employed by Anonymous. “Even if you delete your account, all your information stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time.”

The video also makes the claim that Facebook sells information to government agencies and security firms, a claim Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied many times over the years.

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