Police officers are looking at TikTok in an attempt to catch far-right protesters live-streaming their illegal activities.
TikTok's Live feature has become one of the main means of following the riots, with hundreds of thousands of viewers watching live streams of the riots last week in cities such as Stoke, Leeds, Hull and Nottingham.
The broadcasts, which can last for hours, are sometimes broadcast by people involved in the riots. A number of TikTok streams show the faces of people apparently committing illegal acts such as robbing stores or setting fire to property. They are often made by people whose usernames can easily be linked to their real identities.
"Each police unit will have analysts monitoring social networks, TikTok, for the purpose of gathering evidence. Regional organized crime units are also doing this, focusing on more serious offences, instigators and masterminds," a police source told the Guardian.
Many videos are recorded and broadcast by those who participate in the riots or stand in the crowd of people who are rioting. A riot in Middlesbrough on Sunday was simultaneously live streamed by at least six different TikTok accounts. Footage showed cars on fire, bricks flying through windows and shops being looted.
One broadcast had 14.000 viewers as it showed people robbing a supermarket in Teesside. Another broadcast from Middlesbrough had 4.000 viewers as it showed individuals checking that car drivers were white before letting them through the street - while an off-screen voice shouted "we can't do anything" to officers in riot gear standing in nearby.
During previous riots - such as the riots that spread across England in 2011 - smartphone ownership was still relatively low and mobile technology did not easily support live streaming. As a result, many of the defining videos of the era were relatively short clips shot or obtained by professional news outlets or the police.
This time, police are taking advantage of the public's growing penchant for live-streaming anything important, with improved technology and mobile network capacity allowing people to broadcast their potentially criminal activities.
TikTok's Live feature is a natural vehicle for this due to its ease of use and popularity of the app. Riot streams can attract hundreds of viewers per minute as the app's algorithm quickly promotes engaging streams. This allows individuals to quickly build a "live" audience comparable to television news, even if the recording user has no existing followers on the platform.
One complication for police in gathering evidence is that TikTok streams disappear from public view after the user ends the stream. However, a copy remains available to the original recorder for up to 90 days, meaning they are available on TikTok's servers.
A police source said other material was being used as evidence, including CCTV footage, footage from officers' body cameras, drone footage and videos posted on other online platforms by those who support violence and those who oppose fascism. They also said that retrospective facial recognition is used.
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