Misinformation about the Southport attack fuels far-right discourse on social media | UK News

Information abhors a vacuum.

So when the police and media, for legal reasons, released only a few details about the Southport attacker – that he was 17 and born in Cardiff – misinformation emerged instead.

As far-right groups began to repost the false allegations and organize on the messaging app Telegram, the fallout was violent.

The misinformation began almost as soon as news of the knife attack on a Taylor Swift dance workshop for children broke on Monday, July 29th. Accounts on X, formerly Twitter, quickly began promoting false narratives about the attacker’s nationality and religion.

Anti-migrant sentiment goes viral

One account, European Invasion, which has more than 360,000 followers, said the suspect was “a Muslim immigrant” – a tweet that garnered nearly four million impressions.

Andrew Tate, the controversial influencer, follows this account and expands this false narrative, saying that the attacker was an “illegal migrant”.

Misinformation spread quickly and social media was quickly flooded with a wave of similar content almost immediately after the attack.

And then some very specific misinformation appeared: the attacker was called “Ali Al-Shakati” and had arrived in the UK illegally on a boat last year. None of this is true, according to police statements and an investigation by Sky News.

Data from social media monitoring tool Talkwalker shows that on July 29, there was an increase in engagements on posts mentioning “Southport” and terms related to Islam, including “Asylum”, “Muslim”, “Islam”, “Islamic ” or “Sharia”. Engagement on posts mentioning the fake name has also increased.

The name was initially posted on X in a now-deleted post. But it became popular when an account called Channel 3 Now acquired it.

Channel 3 now appears to produce clickbait articles to generate advertising revenue. The only author listed on their website links to a Facebook page with four friends, one of which is a spam account, another posting exclusively about Channel 3 Now.

Their social media pages have been adapted from previous names and brands, or are relatively new and have few followers.

Spam content producers frequently redirect, buy and sell accounts, and this in itself is not proof of a concerted effort to spread disinformation.

After Channel 3 Now, major outlets repeated the fake name – including Russian state news channel RT.
The fake name went viral – not as much as the general anti-Muslim sentiment, but this was a much narrower statement. And it helped solidify the narrative that an immigrant was to blame for the attack.

“That’s enough”

The feverish, anti-migrant and anti-Islam atmosphere collided with another separate but related online movement.

Posters calling for a protest to be held in Southport on Tuesday 30 July began to circulate widely.

Merseyside Police specifically blamed the English Defense League (EDL), founded by Tommy Robinson, for causing trouble.

They said: “A large group of people – believed to be English Defense League supporters” began throwing items at police.

Online commentators – including Robinson – said the EDL is defunct. Robinson said on X: “The riots are from fed up local residents. Nothing to do with the EDL, which closed over a decade ago.”

The EDL is largely extinct, but the contemporary far right, which shares an ideology and includes many of the same individuals, still operates in groups and networks under various banners.

On Tuesday morning, before the protests, a poster titled “Enough is Enough”, with a print of a hand and a silhouette of figures holding hands, was shared by a well-known far-right activist with links to the Patriotic Alternative (SHOVEL). The group is a successor organization to the British National Party (BNP). AP members were identifiable in images taken at the eventual demonstration.

The poster was then republished on X, where posts are amplified by larger accounts. This is not uncommon with material of this type, which often originates in closed groups or fringe platforms like Telegram, before being disseminated to the general public on larger sites.

The most viral post released this way contained a poster originating from a TikTok account with 144 followers. The resharer has over 90,000 followers on X and has attracted over 485,000 views.

This began to affect an even broader and more dominant ecosystem.

The conversation got louder – specifically the question of what the authorities tell us, who, once again, were unable to offer further details for legal reasons.

A Spectator writer posted on X saying that a police officer told him that what the public was hearing was “managed”.

Tommy Robinson, the anti-Islam activist, cited this tweet approvingly among the many posts he made about the murders and subsequent riots.

Then an elected MP, Nigel Farage, also posted this on fair and legitimate.”

The police could not tell the public everything – it would risk ruining any future trial, potentially meaning any accused could walk free – but the truth was not being hidden.

But that is the backdrop to the protests that quickly turned into a riot in Southport within a matter of hours.

In a statement posted to its website on Wednesday 31 July, Channel 3 Now issued an apology.

“I am writing to sincerely apologize for the misleading information published in a recent article on our website, Channel3 NOW. We deeply regret any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused,” the editor-in-chief wrote.

But the damage was already done.

It is a complex interaction, of immediate online speculation; then, specific disinformation, made for monetary or geopolitical gain; far-right networks organized on Telegram and other platforms; mainstream accounts encouraging people to believe the truth is being hidden.

The result? Chaos and violence on the streets of Southport.

O Data and forensic analysis The team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to delivering transparent Sky News journalism. We gather, analyze and visualize data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite imagery, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia narrative we aim to better explain the world and at the same time show how our journalism is done.