UK examines foreign states’ role in sowing discord leading to riots
LONDON — The British government said on Monday officials were examining the role foreign states had played in amplifying disinformation online which had helped fuel violent protests, while warning social media firms they had to do more to stop it.
Trouble flared last week following the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed event in Southport, a seaside town in northern England, after false messaging on social media wrongly identified the suspected killer as an Islamist migrant.
Protests by anti-Islam and anti-immigration groups then spread to other towns and cities across Britain, with mosques and hotels housing migrants targeted, leading to violent clashes with police.
Jacob Davey, Director of Policy and Research at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD), said the flood of online disinformation and the role of social media firms themselves had been key.
“I don’t think we can underestimate how central the spread of this information is to the horrific events of the weekend,” he told Reuters.
In response, the government, which has for years accused countries such as Russia of seeking to sow discord, has said it was looking to see how much impact foreign states had had in promoting the false messages.
“We have seen bot activity online, much of which may well be amplified or have the involvement of state actors, amplifying some of the disinformation and misinformation that we’ve seen,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters.
“It is clearly something that is being looked at.”
Elon Musk, the owner of X, has also weighed in. Responding to a post on X that blamed mass migration and open borders for the disorder in Britain, he wrote: “Civil war is inevitable.”
Davey said disinformation was spread not just by those seeking to cause trouble but by the social media platforms themselves because of their business models’ algorithms which are set up to amplify a narrative online.
Disinformation was also pushed by high profile anti-immigrant activists. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson.
