How disinformation fed a far-right riot after a deadly stabbing in England

LONDON – Less than two hours after mourners gathered in Southport, England, on the evening of July 30 to honour

three children killed in a brutal stabbing attack

, hundreds of rioters flooded the streets of the already traumatised town.

More than 50 police officers were injured in the ensuing violence, as demonstrators threw bricks at a mosque, attacked police, set cars on fire and damaged a convenience store.

Although some details of the unrest remain opaque, one thing is clear, according to the police, lawmakers and experts in online extremism: Disinformation and far-right agitators fuelled the violence.

Supporters of the English Defence League, an extremist anti-Islam organisation, were part of a large group that attacked a mosque in Southport around 7.45pm, according to a statement from the Merseyside Police Service, which covers the region.

The targeting of the mosque, and the subsequent riot, came after false rumours circulated on social media on July 29, soon after news emerged that a man had stabbed multiple children and two adults at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

The rapid spread of misinformation about the attacker’s identity left authorities fighting a two-pronged battle on July 30: One on the streets of Southport, where the police were pelted with bricks and other objects, and another online, where lawmakers, local officials and the police seemed powerless to halt viral falsehoods.

On the afternoon of July 29, the police said they had arrested a 17-year-old in the stabbings. On July 31, he was charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder, a police statement said. In line with British law regarding minors, the police did not identify the suspect, but said he lived in the nearby village of Banks.

On X, the social media platform owned by Mr Elon Musk, users shared false information about the attacker. Some posted what they claimed was the attacker’s name, which the police said was incorrect, but that information continued to spread. Others spread falsehoods about the attacker’s immigration status, incorrectly claiming he was an asylum-seeker or that he had come to England illegally. Some of the posts received millions of views, fanning the flames of far-right narratives that oppose immigration.

Tommy Robinson, an anti-Islam agitator who founded the English Defence League, and Andrew Tate, another extremist online personality, were among those who fuelled speculation.

Robinson shared a social media post in which a man asked: “Why has our government let this Syrian fella in” to stab “innocent children.”

Tate posted a video on X on Monday night in which he told viewers that an “undocumented migrant decided to go into a Taylor Swift dance class today and stab six little girls, so someone arrived in the UK on a boat, nobody knew who he was, nobody knows where he’s from.” The video has been viewed more than 14.9 million times.

As misinformation about the suspect spread, the police issued statements saying that he was born in Cardiff, Wales. But false claims continued to proliferate.

Since Mr Musk acquired X in 2022, he has rolled back many of the platform’s content- moderation policies, reinstated the accounts of previously banned extremists, including Robinson, and laid off workers responsible for policing misinformation.

Instead, Mr Musk has favoured an approach that allows X users to fact-check one another’s posts. The program, called Community Notes, began in 2021 but expanded rapidly under Mr Musk. Several of the false posts that were viewed widely on X, including Tate’s, received Community Notes that pushed back on the misinformation, even as the posts remained visible.

As the riot took place on the night of July 30, Mr Alex Goss, the assistant chief constable of the Merseyside police, said in a statement, “There has been much speculation and hypothesis around the status of a 17-year-old male who is currently in police custody and some individuals are using this to bring violence and disorder to our streets.”

He added, “We have already said that the person arrested was born in the UK and speculation helps nobody at this time.”

Many of those involved in the unrest, he noted, “do not live in the Merseyside area or care about the people of Merseyside.”

The outbreak of violence was deeply distressing for a community still grappling with raw emotions after July 29’s attack. Thousands had gathered for a vigil to honour the victims, crowding a central square and grasping bouquets of flowers and teddy bears.

In an interview morning of July 31 with BBC radio, the lawmaker who represents the area, Mr Patrick Hurley, said the rioters were “utterly disrespecting the families of the dead and injured children” and called them “beered-up thugs” who were not from Southport. He added, “Even if this lad, the 17-year-old, turns out to be Muslim, under no circumstances does that justify any attack on a mosque.”

The police have said that they are still investigating the motive for the attack, but that it was “not being treated as terrorist-related”.

Robinson denied in a social media post Wednesday that the English Defense League still existed. But experts say that while its membership declined in the 2010s, its supporters have continued to mobilize around certain events.

The Merseyside Police said their officers had suffered serious injuries during the unrest, including fractures, lacerations, a suspected broken nose and a concussion. Others had head injuries and facial injuries, and one was knocked unconscious, the force said. The North West Ambulance Service, which covers the region, said that 39 patients, all of whom were police officers, had been treated for injuries, with 27 taken to the hospital.

The same police and ambulance services had been the first responders the community relied on one day earlier, Serena Kennedy, the chief constable for the area, pointed out. Then, they, too, were targeted. She told reporters Wednesday that the police were prepared for more possible violence in the coming days. NYTIMES