Social media and other emerging internet technologies have played key roles in Great Britain's devastating riots, reportedly sparked by the August 4 fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a man alleged to have had ties to London gangs, while he was in the custody of Scotland Yard. As it has in other recent uprisings, Twitter played a role in the coordination of England's riots, but the preferred tool of Britain's young looters and arsonists was Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service (BBM). Thirty seven percent of UK teens use BBM, a free service that makes it particularly easy to send messages to groups. BBM's proprietary encryption also makes messages more private and difficult to trace, another characteristic that made the service popular among perpetrators of England's extensive chaos, arson and looting. Some point to BBM as the primary planning tool for vandals. Some have even called it the London rioter's best weapon.