The standard line from the British media and our politicians is that the rioters attacked their own communities. "How could this happen?" - they ask without conviction while sweeping all manner of issues under a rug of shrill disgust. Rather than list them all, let us at least observe that the rioters' perception of community is radically different to the sort
attributed to their nearest high street or physical environment. It is virtual
and global, conditioned by shared platforms – often privileging commodity theft
(filesharing) above legal and local geographical constraints. Indeed, of
the suspected looters, 22% were under 18 years old, 51.1% between 18 to 24, and
11.35% between the ages of 25 to 29.1
A recent survey has shown that 43% of persons within the age range of the
middle set are members of online communities or networks designed specifically
for filesharing.2 It is also
reported that almost half the music in the average MP3 player collection
comprises tracks that have not been paid for. Within the same demographic, this
adds up to around £750-worth of ‘stolen’ content per person.3
When one wonders at the lack of a manifesto or equivalent overt
political/ideological statement by the rioters we forget that the manifesto
form – once avant-garde – seems positively baroque in relation to the economy
of internet search terms. The nearest equivalent to statements produced by the
rioters were their text messages. These exhibited an instrumental economy of
language and – in the manner of searches – were conceptually organized around
two propositions: hating cops (law breaking) and commodity desire.
Everyone from all sides of London meet up at the heart of London
(central) OXFORD CIRCUS!!, Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed up so come get some
(free stuff!!!) fuck the feds we will send them back with OUR riot! >:O Dead
the ends and colour war for now so if you see a brother... SALUT! if you see a
fed... SHOOT!
Consider the fact that the cited text subordinates gang rivalry
based on the ends [neighbourhoods] and colours [ethnicities] to the overarching
social network. The text message is a boot command activating a new supra-gang/community:
As Galloway and Thacker correctly state, ‘if there is one truism to the study
of networks, it is that networks are only networks when then are “live,” when
they are enacted, embodied and rendered operational’.
Does this analysis paints a bleak picture? Alone, such virtual
communities/networks for data theft might not be strong enough to make the jump
into actions in the street. However, where the ‘real life’ conditions are
amenable – through weakened social platforms in offline space – it is more
likely. Consider the fact that the riots began in Tottenham, where eight out of
twelve youth centres were closed in the couple of months immediately prior. The
erosion of offline societies strengthens online ones, or at least it does
nothing to fetter their influence in real life.
Beyond the UK, the rise of the pirate party in Sweden – as a direct
activist response to the issue of government crackdown on filesharing – and now
in Germany shows that the supra-national, extra-territorial consumer-libertarian
community forms born online have reached a key stage in their influence on the
offline world. That which is becoming formalized in Sweden and in Germany is
more chaotic on the UK streets but both are facets of the same trajectory. In
the future there will be more surprises of this sort.5
If one should doubt this claim it is worth considering a fact
established by a 2006 survey conducted by the Center for the Digital Future,
which found that forty-three percent of online networkers in the United States
felt ‘“as strongly” about their Web community as they did about their
real-world friends’.6
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8698443/UK-riots-suspected-looters-statistics-and-court-cases.html
[2] Nearly twice as many as those between the ages of 25 to 44. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/market-data/communications-market-reports/icmr06/overview/keythemes/
[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/07/digitalmusic.drm
[4]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/08/london-riots-facebook-twitter-blackberry
[5] One writer goes even further: ‘In the future, loose knit networks
and open-source communities may sit side by side as equal powers with both
governments and the free market.’ Matt Mason, The Pirate’s
Dilemma, Allen Lane, London, 2008, p.207., p.240
[6] Matt Mason, The Pirate’s
Dilemma, Allen Lane, London, 2008, p.207.