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Shutdown: Louise Mensch has backed plans to temporarily shut down social networking

Conservative MP Louise Mensch has backed David Cameron's calls for a temporary shut down of social networking sites during civil unrest.

Mrs Mensch, MP for Corby and East Northampstonshire, ironically used Twitter to share her views on the debate.

She said the 'world won't implode' if sites like Facebook and Twitter were shut down for a few hours.

'If short, necessary and only used in an emergency, so what. We'd all survive if Twitter shut down for a short while during major riots,' she said.

The best-selling author went on to add, 'Social media isn't any more important than a train station, a road or a bus service. We don't worry about police temporarily closing those.

'Common sense. If riot info and fear is spreading by Facebook and Twitter, shut them off for an hour or two, then restore. World won't implode.'

Mensch said that rumours about the riots and unrest spread via the sites and as a result police were wasting much of their resources trying to deal with false alarms.

Some forces reported claims of worried homeowners and businesses dialing 999 after they had heard on social networking sites that violence had broken out in particular areas, only for officers to arrive and find nothing was happening.

Mensch tweeted: 'Northamptonshire police advise me that much of their time and resources were wasted answering false alarms due to social media rumours.'

However calls for the sites to be temporarily shut down have received fierce criticism with many people saying it was authoritarian and would be similar to countries like Iran or China.

Mrs Mensch received backlash of tweets which prompted her to write: 'And really, stop w/ all the dramatics. Nobody is talking about 'shutting down Twitter'. It's about listening to police & a couple hours off.'

Veteran Labour politician, John Prescott also joined in the debate and asked: 'Do you really think shutting down Twitter and Facebook is a sensible idea?'

Investigate: Mr Cameron has asked intelligence agencies to investigate temporary closure of social network sites and, right, Lord Prescott also shared his views on the idea by tweeting

He then told Mrs Mensch how numerous people had used Twitter to find out if their loved ones were safe and also said that police used the site to dispel rumours.

A press officer for Sussex Police, Nick Cloke, confirmed this and tweeted to Mrs Mensch: 'What about police using social media to actively dispel rumours? More panic prob spread by TV - no suggest to shut that down?

'Perhaps one or two people working hard to nip those rumours in bud online would have avoided the 100s of calls?

'Active online engagement has helped reduce calls and spread of untrue rumours.'

Mr Cameron said on Thursday that intelligence agencies and police were exploring whether it was 'right and possible' for those plotting 'violence, disorder and criminality' to be cut off.

Home secretary Theresa May will also hold talks with all major social networks.

Disruption: Home Secretary Theresa May, centre, is taken on a tour of Clapham with London Mayor Boris Johnson after the riots. She will hold talks with major social networks

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