These are being characterized as Flash mobs, and I guess they are, but just because a tool can be used for something the violent shouldn’t mean the tool is bad or off bounds.

Akwue’s point is that BBM is perhaps a more interesting animal than Twitter, as the young people using it can operate beyond the public eye — a potentially disturbing thought.

“The key point here is that although these messages are spreading virally,” he writes, “by being shared via BBM they have been less visible to the outside world, making them harder to track.”

via Tottenham Rioters, BlackBerry Messaging, and the Rise of the ‘Flash Mob’ As Something Scary | techPresident.