UK Riots: Social Media’s Role In Fuelling Nationwide Disorder
Social media and misinformation have been paramount to the spread of far-right riots across the UK following July’s tragic Southport stabbing.
Social media and the power of misinformation have been paramount to the spread of intense far-right riots across the UK following last month’s tragic Southport stabbing.
Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, has chaired three emergency COBRA meetings in a single week as the disorder became uncontrollable in many parts of the country.
What started out as a horrific story about three children being killed – and ten others injured – following a heinous murder spree in Southport ended up becoming a narrative of divisive, anti-Muslim hate by far-right figures.
Southport Stabbings & Initial Misinformation
Shortly before noon on July 29, the unthinkable happened in the bustling seaside town of Southport in Merseyside; a town which has long been a favourite for family holidays.
A then-unnamed 17-year-old male showed up that morning to a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in Southport’s Meols Cop area, before senselessly stabbing thirteen people; eleven of which were children.
Across Britain, mass murders on this scale are rare. But in particular, when it comes to a town such as Southport, an unspeakable atrocity like this taking place was previously unheard of.
To remember the victims, six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, a vigil was held the following evening.
But from the immediate moments after the attacks became headline news, unsubstantiated rumours began to circulate across social media regarding the perpetrator’s identity.
A false name was widely spread across social media platforms such as X (formerly known as Twitter), with many viral tweets wrongly stating that the perpetrator was both a migrant and a Muslim.
The suspect’s name was eventually released: Axel Muganwa Rudakubana. The 17-year-old mass murderer was, in fact, revealed to not have any ties to Islam, in addition to not being a migrant (he was born in Cardiff).
These facts came too late though – largely because of the perpetrator’s identity being legally concealed initially because of his age – and the damage of far-right-driven misinformation on social media led to the beginning of the disorder.
Starting off by chanting fascist terms and damaging Southport Mosque, the ‘pro-UK’ protesters subsequently clashed with police, ultimately injuring over fifty officers.
The Southport incident was merely how the disorder started, however, as after July 30, the far-right chaos spread across the country.
Subsequent Disorder & Fascist Groupings
Now, it was the rest of England’s turn to face the wrath of rioters. Far-right figures started to set up Telegram groups centred around future riot dates, times, and locations.
The now-deleted “Southport Wake Up” group quickly became one of the most prominent on the platform, accumulating 14,000 members.
July 31 saw disorder spread over to London, Manchester, Hartlepool, and Aldershot – with a recurring theme of targeting asylum seekers who were being housed in hotels.
Three days later, on August 3, the most widespread riots occurred – with Belfast, Hull, Bristol, Blackpool, Leeds, and Liverpool all holding far-right protests. Rioters partook in acts of looting, racist chanting, and physical attacks during these protests.
Bolstering this hostile environment was Tommy Robinson, one of Britain’s leading far-right figures.
He posted a tweet that same day, wrongly suggesting that it was a Muslim man who stabbed a woman in Stirling.
This information was later revealed to be falsified by Robinson. But thanks to him having amassed over 950k followers on the platform, Robinson’s post and rhetoric only worsened racial tensions.
Rioters were now becoming more emboldened by the array of misleading anti-Muslim propaganda.
The next day, one of the most horrendous acts since the riots began occurred during a Yorkshire riot. A Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, which has been used to house asylum seekers, was the primary focus among that day’s rioters.
Adorning balaclavas, the rioters attacked police officers and forced their way into the hotel, before purposely setting fire to a bin and placing it next to the hotel; resulting in the building going up in flames.
The intent was clear: to signal a life-threatening message to migrants, asylum seekers, and people of colour in general within Britain.
Elon Musk & Ongoing Threats
Elon Musk set out to transform social media platforms – namely X – from being heavily censored, advertiser-friendly, and intensely moderated creations to outlets where people can post whatever they wish without any consequences, true or false, and as offensive as they wish.
In a sense, it worked. X is a much more visibly toxic platform these days than it ever has been – and I’ve had an account since 2013!
But this transformation hasn’t created the promising ‘free speech’ haven that Musk professes to have made.
Instead, misinformation runs rife, discriminatory rhetoric is more permitted, and young people who consume such content are more prone to viewing such content than during the pre-Musk days of social media.
More worryingly, Musk himself practices this notion of unrestrained freedom of speech. As the world’s richest man and one of the most influential people globally, this is going into especially dangerous territory.
Bigoted tweets have been posted by Musk to his 193 million followers in the midst of the disorder, with many recent posts by the entrepreneur promoting racist, Islamophobic, and anarchic ideals.
For such a prominent figure to be espousing such divisive beliefs to such a large audience is plainly unethical. But that’s the reality we now appear to live in; for the post-Trump world is comprised of shock value headlines.
The very serious impact of misinformation and hate speech has been rendered meaningless thanks to the likes of Musk and Trump.
My Thoughts On Imminent Local Riots
As a mixed race, half Pakistani person studying in the centre of Glasgow, I feel anxious and tense quite a lot of the time currently with the nation’s racialised riots gaining such prominence.
Only a couple of days ago, I was at George Square in Glasgow, when I read an article from my local newspaper that warned about a potential far-right protest at that very spot in the next hour-or-so.
I knew about the planned protest on September 7, but the sudden realisation that anti-Muslim, racist, and potentially violent thugs could be targeting myself and others at any moment was both stark and disappointing.
To even have to discuss the concept of ‘race riots’ when referring to current day Britain is just deplorable.
We might have welcomed a more moderately-led Labour government just over a month ago, but all it took for swathes of people across the country to evoke ultra-nationalist, white supremacist rhetoric was a sole perpetrator of a mass stabbing just so happening to be a person of colour.
Thankfully, many looters, rioters, and even those who espoused hateful and threatening posts on social media over the course of the riots are being arrested, charged, and even facing prison sentences.
Perhaps without the detrimental effects of social media’s misinformation and hate-driven agenda, the mob-like rioting across Britain would not have been so drastic and swift in utilisation.
Starmer announced that his government will review the UK’s social media laws in the wake of the riots. Let’s hope that the likes of Musk will be challenged on their unprincipled ways.
