Earlier this month, the United Kingdom underwent its worst riots in over a decade in the aftermath of the horrific July 29th attack on a children’s dance studio. The anti-immigration riots underscore a pervasive issue facing Western governments, extremist politics, and the spread of misinformation in the social media age. In light of this, it exposes what little is being done to combat this threat.
The riots began after an attack on a children’s dance school in the English town of Southport, which left three children dead, and ten others injured. In the immediate aftermath, rumours began spreading online that the attacker was an illegal Muslim immigrant. Despite the rumours having been quashed- a British court confirmed that the assailant was a Welsh-born, British citizen- riots spread to cities across the U.K.
Reminiscent of anti-Jewish pogroms in early 20th century Eastern Europe, in Southport, rioters attacked a mosque, injuring 27 police officers in their rampage. In the towns of Rotherham and Tamworth, vagrants attacked two hotels known to house asylum seekers.
The riots that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called “far-right thuggery” underscore a grave danger facing Western society: extremist politics and fast spreading misinformation. The ongoing riots in the U.K. demonstrate what happens when the two mix.
The claim that the suspect was an illegal Muslim migrant spread like wild fire on British social media. According to a Reuters analysis, the online claim had been viewed over 15.7 million times in the days following the attack.
Worse, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a think-tank dedicated to combatting hate and extremist misinformation globally, accounts claiming to be “news” organizations falsely identified the assailant as a man named “Ali al-Shakati”.
Far-Right extremist figures in the U.K. seized the moment. Tommy Robinson, the notorious British right-wing extremist known for his anti-immigrant rhetoric, retweeted a post in which it was claimed that the police were “managing” the information made public. He stoked conspiracy theorists by adding that authorities were trying to “manipulate us.
On July 30th, just one day after the attack, he called on people “to rise up.” On July 31, he posted a video on X in which he called on people to stop the violence, saying, “we will not win our country back [by] throwing rocks." However, in the week since, he has continued to spew Islamophobic, divisive, rhetoric on his social media accounts.
Others have joined the fray. On its website, the British National Party, a far-right political party in the U.K., while condemning the acts of violence, added: “we do understand why this is happening.”
This is not the first time that far-right misinformation has stoked violence. In 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, hundreds of white supremacists gathered in protest of the removal of a statute of a Confederate general. Harkening to a Nazi rally, they carried torches and chanted “Jews will not replace us.” Antifa counter-protesters showed up, leading to countless injuries and one death.
Governments and national security agencies are increasingly raising alarm bells about the threat that the far-right poses. The U.K. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee has stated that right-wing terrorism is on the rise, and that such groups are looking for events to exploit and stoke violence.
In the United States, Congress’ Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2019 cited far-right extremists as the gravest domestic terrorism threat facing the country. A 2017 report found that between 2001 and 2016, incidents of far-right terrorism exceeded radical Islamic terrorism in 10 of those 15 years.
Several studies have been done on the far-right and the internet. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies found that right-wing extremist groups most commonly use the internet to spread their message and like other extremist movements, the internet has increased the reach of their misinformation.
In her book, Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right, sociologist Cynthia Miller-Idriss states that the internet has allowed far-right extremists to exploit events and spread misinformation about them quickly. She adds that these claims appeal to people’s sense of morality, making it seem like the only right thing to do is to take action.
This was the strategy used by Tommy Robinson when he claimed that British authorities were attempting to “manipulate” people about the Southport attack, before calling on people to “rise-up,” in the face of a horrendous violent act.
This is a unique problem for governments in the social media age. Prior to the boom of platforms like X (Twitter) and Instagram, propagators of misinformation would have to stand on their soapbox on a busy street corner, yelling into megaphones while passersby gave them funny looks and raised their eyes in disbelief at fellow onlookers. Social media platforms though give credibility to their theories and allows their fringe message to be picked up by other extremists- further making their claims seem true, “strength in numbers” as the saying goes.
National governments are indeed increasingly recognizing the problem, but little action is being taken.
In April 2024, Britain’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) released a briefing on the issue. It identifies primary sources of misinformation, including foreign states, activists and politicians. It further discusses how misinformation spreads, identifying social media and the internet as the platforms used most.
The report also includes recommendations on the best way to combat misinformation including fact-checking and increasing “media literacy.” Unfortunately, this places the burden on media organizations and individuals, rather than action through legislation.
In 2019, the British government set-up the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU). The CDU’s main mandate is to monitor and provide data to the government on the spread of misinformation. The CDU sometimes takes offensive action too, primarily through postings on social media denying false claims.
However, these efforts do little when distrust of the government and institutions is at an all-time high. According to a 2023 report from the U.K’s Office for National Statistics 57 percent of people surveyed have “low or no trust” in the British government.
The United States government is doing even less. In 2022, the Department of Homeland Security formed the Disinformation Governance Board, however this was later disbanded due to fears of constitutional violations.
Although Western governments are increasingly taking the threat of extremist politics seriously, little meaningful effort is being done to combat the spread of misinformation. The solution to this pervasive problem is tricky. Regulating social media content often flies in the face of free speech, while attempting to clamp down on so-called “news” organizations threatens freedom of the press- ideals oh so important in liberal democracies. Governments must do more though.
What can firmly be stated is that expressing legitimate grievances against immigration policy is fine- targeting people because of their religion or immigration status is not. The riots in the U.K. only serve to remind us of the dangers of misinformation and extremist politics.