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By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent

The firms suggested that authorities should work with third-party firms that offer technology to keep a constant eye on public chatter on the web.

Wider police use of such tools, already adopted by the marketing industry, would not involve them being granted any special access to private messages or secure systems.

Facebook, Twitter and RIM, the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, were summoned to Whitehall after a speech by David Cameron during the week of the rioting. He said that after their services were used to arrange violence and looting the government was “working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services”.

But as she opened the meeting, it’s understood that Theresa May made it clear that the government had decided not to seek new powers over social networks, rejecting calls from some backbenchers for them to be shut down during emergencies.

Tim Godwin, the acting commissioner of the Met, had also said after the rioting that police considered trying to impose a blackout on Twitter.
 
Instead, as well as improving their monitoring capabilities, police agreed at the meeting that the process they use to report illegal web content to service providers, known as the “single point of contact”, could be used more effectively.

Currently, counter-terrorism and child protection officers are trained better in the laws and website small print that can be used to get Facebook and Twitter to take down messages. Ministers and senior police at the meeting said that this “best practice” should be spread to public order policing.

“The discussions looked at how law enforcement and the networks can build on the existing relationships and cooperation to prevent the networks being used for criminal behaviour,” a Home Office spokesman said.

At least five people have been convicted of inciting riots on Facebook since the disturbances, including two men in Cheshire who each received a four-year prison sentence.

Social networks have been keen, however, to highlight the role they played in community clean-up and fundraising initiatives. Volunteers in Hackney, Tottenham, Wandsworth and elsewhere used Facebook and Twitter to organise teams of locals armed with brooms to sweep the streets, and to collect donations to help the owners of looted shops.

“We welcome the fact that this was a dialogue about working together to keep people safe rather than about imposing new restrictions on internet services,” a Facebook spokesman said.

“We were also able to revisit the positive role Facebook played during the riots – from letting friends and family know they are safe to helping facilitate local clean-up operations.”

A spokesman for RIM, the BlackBerry maker, said: "It was a positive and productive meeting and we were pleased to consult on the use of social media to engage and communicate during times of emergency.

"RIM continues to maintain an open and positive dialogue with the UK authorities and continues to operate within the context of UK regulations." Telegraph