Coalition abandons draconian plan to close down Facebook and Twitter

Threats to close down Twitter and other social media during civil disturbances have been abandoned.

The subject was not even discussed during an hour-long meeting between senior ministers, the police, and representatives of Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry yesterday. The Government has climbed down after being alerted to the pitfalls of a policy put forward "in the heat of the moment".

One industry representative who was at yesterday's meeting said: "The Government's position was set out right at the beginning: they are not out to shut down any social networks." A Home Office statement said that the Home Secretary, Theresa May, the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the Foreign Office minister, Jeremy Browne, had a "constructive" discussion with the industry about how to prevent the networks from being used to organise criminal behaviour.

That contrasted with tough words from David Cameron in an emergency Commons debate on 11 August when he said: "We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."

He was picking up on a suggestion made by David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, where the rioting began, who appealed to Research in Motion (RIM) to close down the BlackBerry network overnight to prevent riots being co-ordinated.

Ten civil rights groups sent an open letter to the Home Secretary yesterday warning that an idea raised "in good faith but in the heat of the moment" could lead to the abuse of "legitimate free communication".

Tory right-winger Louise Mensch MP, pictured, meanwhile, took to Twitter to argue for powers to suspend the service.