Online lies and false narratives about the Southport attack have fueled mass violence. Disinformation has driven hundreds of right-wing extremists to target a mosque and multiple refugee hostels in the UK. Right wing extremists motivated by the online rumour that the perpetrator was a muslim that had come on one of the boats crossing the canal motivated attacks on mosques and asylum centres. But the perpetrator is not a muslim, and he did not come off a boat crossing the channel.
The perpetrator, 17 year old Axel Rudakubana is born and grown up in England. His parents, who are from Rwanda, contacted the police four times, worried that he might kill somebody
Because the law prohibits names of underaged to be exposed, the name of the suspect was kept secret. ABC News say that a false name, Ali AL-Shakati was published on a X social media platform that purports to be a news channel. «A Facebook page of the same name says it is managed by people in Pakistan and the U.S. A related website on Wednesday showed a mix of possibly AI-generated news and entertainment stories, as well as an apology for “the misleading information” in its article on the Southport stabbings».
The Independent writes that the disinformation first was posted by a 3 child mother and business woman who wrote on X: “Ali Al-Shakati was the suspect, he was an asylum seeker who came to the UK by boat last year and was on an MI6 watch list. If this is true, then all hell is about to break loose.”
The Guardian how the story of the attacker having an arab name has beeen shared by a self-styled social media influencer and «Reform UK» supporter, who goes by the name of «brucesrandomness», had been viewed nearly 800,000 times: «A prominent British conspiracy theorist had earlier been filming at the crime scene. A YouTube video where he calls for emergency military rule and mass deportations received 30,000 views in the two hours after it was posted.»
The Merseyside police has reacted to these false stories «A name has been shared on social media in connection with the suspect in the incident in Southport. This name is incorrect and we would urge people not to speculate on details of the incident while the investigation is ongoing.»
BBC writes: «An influencer on X associated with the Yaxley-Lennon (alias the police wanted Tommy Robinson), who posts under the name of “Lord Simon”, was among the first to publicly call for nationwide protests. His account promoted false claims that the alleged Southport attacker had been an asylum seeker, recently arrived in the UK by boat. His video has been viewed over a million times.
“We have to hit the streets. We have to make a huge impact all around the country. Every city needs to go up everywhere,” he said.»
Violence
CNN reports that Two Holiday Inn hotels in Northern England, that has housed refugees, have been set ablase. «The far right has seized on and spread a wave of disinformation, including false claims the attacker was an immigrant, to mobilize anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests. Police have confirmed the suspect was born in Britain.»
BBC says that «Several online graphics promoting the protest were shared on the Telegram channel. Although neither the channel nor its associated chat have many followers, those posters later migrated to TikTok, X and Facebook, where they were shared widely.»
BBC names well known far right extremists beyond Merseyside saw the opportunity to spread their own messages through major social media platforms like the Elon Musk-owned X, where a video with false claims of the “police oppression of peaceful protesters concerned about the murder of white children”» has been viewed more than 8,000 times.
BBC writes that 35-year-old, of Salix Approach, Lincoln, admitted publishing written material online to stir up racial hatred between 28 July and 8 August.
“Sentencing him at Lincoln Crown Court, Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight told him: “You were not caught up in what others were doing, you were instigating it.”She added: “The flames fanned by keyboard warriors like you.”
BBC reported from the court case that “Wayne O’Rourke, who had more than 90,000 followers to his X account, praised the burning of a car in SunderlandA further post urged the “people of Southport” to “get out on the street”, which garnered 1.7 million views, the court was told.
Other posts showed a picture of the County Road mosque in Liverpool and a picture of burning car in Sunderland, which was accompanied by a post that read: “Sunderland, go on lads”.
In another, he posted: “Starmer has basically said it us against them. Hold the line.”
Other posts read “numbers are important” and “give them hell lads”, the court heard.
O’Rourke’s X profile was accompanied by a picture of a bulldog wearing a Union Jack jacket.”
The BBC reports that the court was told he admitted receiving about £1,400 a month in payments for his account.
The wandering stories has reached to Irland, where they have motivated right wing extremists riots. Cited from The Journal: «Social media soon flooded with false claims that the assailant is an asylum seeker, with those claims now being shared by Irish social media users on X and Facebook.»
BBC describes the parents as well integrated. «Helen, a neighbour of the family while they lived in Cardiff, has spoken of her shock, and said the family had come from Rwanda.»
She told the BBC: “They were a lovely young couple. They were little boys, they were boisterous. Mum was a stay at home mum, Dad was nice, he went to work every day. They had a small family car, a little hatchback.”
Formerly being an industrial and economic superpower, and a global colonial power, is an important reason why the UK is today a multicultural society. As shown in section 16 in this blog, the UK does not have as many refugees compared to other European countries. But still Suella Braverman claimed that there was an “invasion of migrants“ to the UK. This narrative has ploughed the ground for the wandering stories and violence coming out of the tragic events in Southport.
It is very rare that you see such terrible events as happened in Southport. The perpetrator is born in the UK by parents from Rwanda. But such terrible crimes are done by people of all nations and in all social layers. The worst mass murders in Norway in peacetime was done by the Norwegian neo-nazi Fjotolf Hansen, formerly named Anders Behring Breivik He murdered 77 people in Oslo. 32 of them under the age of 32. See chapter 13 in this blog.