This article investigates the influence of Social Media platforms on policing protests and riots. Mainly, it is argued that through a stronger inclusion of Social Media data into policing, Social Media itself becomes a domain of internal security, therefore, it is argued, Social Media could become securitized itself. Another argument is that, as Social Media represents one aspect of the rise of Big Data in policing, law enforcement has shifted strategies from reaction to prevention, as the analysis of data offers the opportunity for predictive policing. In this article, law enforcement practices regarding Social Media in policing protests and riots are therefore investigated in order to assess if Social Media has caused a shift towards predictive policing and if this could be understood as a further securitization within internal security policy.
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