In a study published Monday in Britain, a government committee emphasized how uncontrolled disinformation fueled riots last summer and stated that British regulations limiting what the police may say about criminal investigations are “not fit for the social media age.”
After a juvenile killed three girls on July 29 at a dance lesson in Southport, England, with a Taylor Swift theme, violent disorder, driven by the extreme right, impacted multiple towns and cities for days. False allegations that the perpetrator was an illegal Muslim immigrant quickly went viral on the internet in the hours following the stabbings.
According to a parliamentary committee’s assessment on the riots, the authorities’ failure to provide information following the incident “created a vacuum where misinformation was able to grow.”
Millions of people had been falsely accused by the time the authorities revealed the suspect was British.
Following four months of hearings during which it questioned police commanders, government officials, and emergency personnel, the Home Affairs Committee—which comprises MPs from a variety of political backgrounds—released its findings.
Born and reared in Britain by a Christian Rwandan family, Axel Rudakubana received a life sentence for the crime. A judge ultimately concluded that there was no proof he was motivated by a particular political or religious belief, but rather by a violent obsession.
The head of the Conservative Party’s Home Affairs Committee, Karen Bradley, said that “bad-faith actors” took advantage of the attack. However, she emphasized that false information spread because there was little information.
“False claims filled the gap and flourished online, further undermining confidence in the police and public authorities,” she added, referring to the failure to release information to the public.
Two untrue statements that were spread on X were identified in the committee’s findings. One stated that the suspect was a “Muslim immigrant” and was posted around two hours after the incident. Over 3.8 million people viewed it.
The second, which was uploaded around five hours later, made the erroneous claim that the suspect was “Ali-Al-Shakati,” an asylum seeker who was on the “MI6 watch list.” About 27 million people viewed the post on X in a single day. It wasn’t until lunchtime on July 30 that Merseyside Police, the local police investigating the incident, declared the identity was incorrect.
