London Councils overwhelmed by the lengthy clean-up process to restore their communities, after three nights of destruction, are being helped out by industrious residents organising themselves on Twitter.

The Twitter account @riotcleanup has attracted more than 18,000 followers in a matter of hours and was helping people to co-ordinate their efforts. Others were using the hashtag #riotscleanup, while concerned Liverpudlians have formed their own clean-up team under #LiverpoolCleanUp.

On Facebook, 435,921 are now following the group 'Supporting the Met Police Against the London Rioters'. Useful pictures of looters and rioters are being tweeted to @metpoliceuk.

Twitter and Facebook have been widely criticised by both the press and police for facilitating the gatherings of these groups of violent rioters by offering free, real time communication on the social networking sites. Now users of Twitter and Facebook are launching a counter-offensive by organising clean-up operations in their local areas.