U.K. Police Down On Facebook Flashmobs

By Digital Trends Staff May 20, 2008

U.K. Police Down On Facebook Flashmobs

Would you like to be in the world’s biggest custard pie fight? Well, up until a few days ago you could have been, if you’d been willing to go to Brighton. But British police ordered organizers to cancel the event, which had been put together on Facebook, when over 1,200 signed up to take part – a crowd too large to be readily controlled.

Called Facebook flashmobs because participants assemble after the event is advertised on social network Facebook, the first problem came on May Day weekend with an organized water fight at Millennium Square in Leeds, where 350 people took part in a water fight that ended in destruction of property to the tune of several thousand pounds. Those who put the event together apologized to the city, and police have been looking at YouTube footage of the event to identify the vandals.

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That caused the cancellation of a mass pillow fight, which was also to have been held in Leeds. And now more than a thousand will go without pie. A spokesman for the pie fight explained to the Daily Telegraph:

"At the time the police agreed to let it go ahead there were less than 100 people signed up. Now there’s more than 1,200 and unsurprisingly the police aren’t too happy about it. The police have a good sense of humor and think it’s a fun idea and have suggested we organize the event for real. It’s not as spontaneous as it was but it could still easily be a world record."

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