While the Arab Spring brought attention earlier this year to the power of technology for political action in repressive states, two recent events have raised questions about how communication technology is to be used in free societies and how far public authorities can go to control it.
On August 11, police for BART, the San Francisco Bay Area's rapid transit system, shut off cell-phone service in several underground stations to prevent communication between protestors who planned to disrupt BART service.
We asked respondents whether or not they approved of BART’s actions. Overall, 40% of respondents approved of cutting off cell-phone service and 43% disapproved. Respondents older than 55 were more likely to support the cell-phone service cut, while those below 55 were more likely to oppose it. Across party lines, 56% of Republicans agreed with BART’s actions, while only 31% of Democrats felt the same way. A regional skew also appeared in the data: 51% of those in the West opposed the move, and only 34% supported it. These were respectively the highest and lowest percentages for any region.
We then asked respondents if they thought that BART violated the constitutional rights of the protestors by cutting off cell-phone reception. 48% of respondents (those answering the question either “Definitely” or “Probably”) thought that BART did violate the constitutional rights of the protestors and 36% (those answering the question either “Probably not” or “Definitely not”) thought that BART did not violate the protestors’ rights.
Among Democrats, 54% thought that BART violated the protestors’ constitutional rights and 26% thought they did not. On the other hand, only 37% of Republican respondents thought that BART violated constitutional rights, while 52% thought they did not.
The second recent event which has raised questions was the wave of riots that took place in London and several other British cities, from August 6 to 10. The riots have been called the “BlackBerry Riots” because of the widespread use among rioters of BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application for instant communication.
We asked respondents how much they thought that use of BlackBerry Messenger contributed to the riots.
- 17% thought that they contributed “very much” to the riots
- 27% said they contributed “somewhat”
- 18% believed they contributed “a little”
- 17% thought they did not contribute at all
Across age demographics, older individuals were more likely to say that use of BlackBerry Messenger contributed “Very Much” or “Somewhat”.
Next we inquired about whether respondents thought it was acceptable for the British police to temporarily shut off BlackBerry Messenger service to halt or prevent future riots. 38% (those answering the question either “Definitely” or “Probably”) thought it was acceptable for the British government to shut off BlackBerry service to prevent future riots while 50% (those answering the question either “Probably not” or “Definitely not”) thought it was not acceptable.
18-34 year-olds were more likely than other age groups to oppose shutting off BlackBerry Messenger. 64% of them were against it, in contrast to 50% of 35-54 year-olds and 38% of those 55 and older. Democrats were also more likely to oppose shutting down the system, while Republicans were slightly more likely to support shutting it off in case of future riots.
Finally, we asked whether Research in Motion, the makers of BlackBerry, should release data from the Blackberry Messenger system to the British authorities so they could investigate and prosecute individuals involved in the riots. 53% of respondents supported releasing the information (answering the question “Definitely” or “Probably”), while 31% opposed it (answering the question “Probably not” or “Definitely not”).
Older individuals were more likely than other age demographics to support giving the data to police. 61% of Republicans and 48% of Democrats supported giving the information while 23% of Republicans and 38% of Democrats opposed it.
Image Source: Press Association
