What Is a BlackBerry®?

BlackBerry Messenger Service, BlackBerry Messenger Service. BlackBerry® Messenger is a messaging application developed for BlackBerry smartphone users.

BlackBerry Messenger Service

1. Invite BBM friends to experience your favorite apps: Select BBM contacts directly from these apps and invite them to download the app or join the chat.

2. Chat with your friends in the BBM related app: Open the connected app to chat with your friends while watching the latest sports results.

3. Discover more exciting apps through your friends: The new profile feed will show your contacts your latest BBM related app game scores, links, and more. You can even click to download or open these apps.

British officials ask RIM to suspend BlackBerry messenger service

British lawmakers have called Research In Motion (RIM) to suspend Blackberry Messenger (BBM) services during the riots in London, a controversial request that has made the mobile operator a dilemma.

Assemblyman David Lammy has asked RIM to shut down London's BBM service as instigators continue to use the service to organize rallying and arson. "This is one of the reasons that ignorant criminals were able to escape the otherwise capable police," he said in a Twitter message. "The BlackBerry messenger is different because it is encrypted and cannot be seized by the police."

Instead of posting their intentions on Facebook or Twitter, which police can easily monitor, London rioters have used cheap cell phone services to send secret messages about the robbery program. Lamy's demand for disruption of this channel of information drew different reactions from both parties, both from rioters and from RIM.

On Tuesday, an organization called Teampoison captured the RIM's official blog "Inside BlackBerry", posting a warning to the company. "If you provide police with chat records, GPS locations, customer information, and BlackBerry Messenger account access, you will regret it," the organization wrote in an article. "We have access to your database, which includes information about your employees; such as address, name, phone, etc. If you assist the police, we will make this information public and relay it to the rioters." The article further threatened.

RIM insists that it regularly cooperates with government authorities around the world, but so far it has not indicated whether it will hand over chat records at Lamy's request. If RIM decides to do so, it may take more than just put employees at risk, as threatened by the Teampoison organization, it may also annoy other users, and it will be difficult for some people if the BlackBerry Messenger chat history is opened to authorities Accept the fact that police can view their private information without a related search warrant or court summons.

But on the other hand, if RIM doesn't cooperate, it could be accused of failing to actively assist British authorities in hunting down the rioters. Although the company's executive director, Patrick Spence, has pledged to assist the London police, it remains to be seen which step RIM will take in voluntarily disclosing user information.

In the past, RIM has caused anger over requests from the government like Lamy-either because there is too little cooperation or because it is too close. After the bombing in Mumbai, Indian authorities asked it to decrypt the BlackBerry Messenger service to allow police to search for possible terrorists. At the time, RIM insisted that it could not comply, and resisted the government's demands. Eventually, after India threatened to ban the BlackBerry messenger service in the country, RIM gave its government partial viewing rights.

Saudi Arabia has also warned RIM of threatening to shut down BlackBerry Messenger unless the company allows authorities to view private information of citizens, which is said to monitor unrelated men and women's communications. RIM is still working on a plan to reach a compromise with Saudi officials, a move that could affect whether it will cooperate with the government in the future and how to cooperate, including the government request from London this time.

When it comes to complying with government information requests, RIM's situation is quite delicate. Regardless of the decision made, it will likely be blamed, which is not the right time for this struggling mobile operator.