www.le.ac.uk
Social media, sousveillance and civilSocial media, sousveillance and civil
unrest in the UKunrest in the UK
Dr Paul ReillyDr Paul Reilly
University of LeicesterUniversity of Leicester
Paper presented to Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural ResearchPaper presented to Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research
Birmingham City UniversityBirmingham City University
5 June 20135 June 2013
@PaulJReilly@PaulJReilly
1

Overview:
• Sousveillance and social media
• Youtube, sousveillance and 2011 anti-tesco
riot(s) in Bristol
• Social media as ‘accelerant’ for Union Flag
protests in Northern Ireland in 2013

Sousveillance and social media:
• From French word sous (below) and veiller (to watch) –
‘inverse surveillance’
• Concept developed by Mann to explore potential use of
wearable computing to empower users (1997, 2001)
• Two forms: personal (first person perspectives on life) and
hierarchical (recording authority figures and actions)
• Web 2.0 social practices (e.g. use of smart phones to access
social media) generate “intensification of sousveillance’
(Bakir, 2010)

Background: Stokes Croft, Bristol
• Survey in March 2010 shows that 93% of local people
oppose opening of Tesco store
• Tesco receives planning permission to open store on
Cheltenham road on 8 December 2010
• April 21 2011 – violence breaks out after police
operation to evict squat opposite Tesco store- police
claim they are acting on reports of petrol bomb
threat from squat, local residents accuse police of
‘heavy-handed’ tactics
4

Disagreement over police actions on
21st
April:
” Yesterday there was a very real threat to the local community from the petrol bombs
that were being made and we needed to take positive action [….] The fact that we
seized petrol bombs illustrates the seriousness of this situation and the reason why we
took this positive action”
Assistant Chief Constable Rod Hansen, Avon and
Somerset Constabulary, 22nd
April 2011.
The police tactics were unfathomable. They seemed to consist of running from one end of
Stokes Croft to the other (and up several side streets), randomly charging about the
place, getting more and more people involved and moving the violence into new areas
that had previously been quiet.”
Battle of Stokes Croft: eye witness/local resident report,
Bristol Indymedia, 22nd
April 2011
5

Videos of events posted on Youtube:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpPM2NXLK-c
6

Reilly (forthcoming): Youtubers respond
to this ‘sousveillance’ footage
• N=1018 comments left under four most
commented-upon videos
• Videos show eyewitness perspectives on policing
of disturbances
• Focus not only on riot police but also those who
participated in/witnessed riot
• Study examines whether commenters perceived
this was an act of hierarchical sousveillance and
whether they sympathised with local residents

Comments: Key themes
• Criticism of rioters (cost to tax payers, their background, efficacy of tactics)
A boycott or peaceful protest would have been far better
It was a substance fueled riot. Not an ideologically fueled_ one
• Police response (disproportionate, robust enough?)
Yep I hope the police officers pay for_ their brutality
Look at countries like Italy and France, they shoot people with jets of water which
send you flying. Our country really needs to shape-up
• Support for ‘People Power’
This is ART, it is beautiful democracy in action, it is empowering, engaging, an_
image of solidarity and people power. Go On YE!!!!!!!!!
• Why Tesco? (Tesco tax avoidance, threat to local business).
Tesco's mindset of social theft with the long term_ result of turning communities
into depersonalized ghost towns must always be challenged.

Results: Mixed response to
sousveillance footage?
• Majority of the comments criticised the police for not
adopting more aggressive crowd control methods e.g. water
canon and baton rounds
• There was no consensus amongst commenters in relation to
the broader issues e.g. legitimacy of local campaigns to
protect small businesses from large corporations such as
Tesco.
• Youtube provided a public space in which alternative
perspectives were both seen and heard, but little rational
debate about the meaning of events, with the views of many
commenters still strongly influenced by the news media.

Social media and English riots (6-10 August 2011)Social media and English riots (6-10 August 2011)
• http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?
msid=205032186327800375055.0004a9e051b74ddbfcadd&m
sa=0 10

Social media used ‘for good and bad’ during
August riots:
• BBM broadcasts used to organise riots in London, Birmingham,
Manchester – ‘chitter-chatter’
• Rumours and unsubstantiated information spread via Twitter (e.g.
Reading the Riots)
• People made aware via social and traditional media (esp television) that
police had lost control of streets
• Social media provides real-time information about riots to local residents
who board up shop windows and leave affected areas
• Twitter used to organise clean up operations (#riotcleanup)

Reilly (2011): Social media not to blame for
street riots in Northern Ireland
• PSNI claimed they did not routinely monitor social media for intelligence
about street riots (community workers believed they did though..)
• Key stakeholders perceive that the multistakeholder approach towards
Internet Safety is an effective and proportionate response to the ‘anti-
social’ networking practices of young people.
• They believed that anti-social behaviour could be organised via SMS text
messaging if sites as Bebo were no longer available.

Union Flag protests: Social media
as accelerant?
• Belfast City Council vote to fly Union Flag over City Hall only
on designated days on 3rd
December 2012
• Leaflet distributed in East Belfast constituency calls for PUL
(Protestant Unionist Loyalist) people to protest
• Organisations such as Ulster People’s Voice (UPV) and Ulster
People’s Forum (UPF) said to be behind protest at BCC vote –
target pro-Union Alliance Party for their support of motion
• Operation Standstill designed to cause maximum disruption
across Northern Ireland by blocking main roads

Facebook and Twitter used to
promote #operationstandstill

List of planned protests circulates
on social media:

Social media used by both citizen and
professional journalists to share images of
rioting across Northern Ireland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2q13e5-0Z8

Recording of pensioner arguing
with loyalist protesters goes viral:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI_VhAEwB0k

Loyalist protesters upload footage
showing alleged PSNI ‘brutality’ to
Youtube: Sousveillance?

Like English riots, rumours also
circulate on social media sites:
• Pensioner caught on tape was a hoax -
‘republican dirty trick’
• Police vehicle drove through protest injuring
several children
• Members of the Garda Siochana were
responsible for policing protests in East Belfast
Q. Should PSNI be doing more to counter these
rumours on Twitter?

Social media and conflict transformation
in NI (Reilly, forthcoming) will:
• Analyse how parties, institutions have used
new media to mobilise support for/against
peace process
• Assess the contribution of social media to
intercommunity dialogue
• Examine extent to which social media provide
spaces in which alternative perspectives may
be heard and mainstream media frames are
challenged

Conclusion
• Use of social media for sousveillance purposes may raise
more questions about behaviour of members of the public
than the police
• Social media provides space for alternative perspectives on
civil unrest to emerge but mainstream media framing of
events continues to influence opinion of commenters
• But, analysis of content posted on social media sites such as
Facebook and Twitter may provide a more nuanced
understanding of civil unrest than mainstream media