Who says BlackBerry is irrelevant? Research In Motion said it would be working with police on investigating what role, if any, the BlackBerry Messenger service had in organizing the recent riots.
London has been under siege by some looting and rioters and authorities say that the BBM service is being used to help coordinate this. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, RIM’s service is encrypted and it’s more difficult for law enforcement to track without RIM’s help.
Thee Guardian says that RIM could be compelled to release the information on who sent out the messages but it could say that the encryption means it can’t really unscramble the real messages. We’ve seen RIM say this when BlackBerry was under fire in multiple countries for alleged security concerns.
Regardless of what happens, stay safe out there.