Southport riots, “an attempt to hijack a really difficult, sensitive issue to push hate”

In the aftermath of the mass stabbing attack in Southport, UK, last week, ISD tracked the spread and evolution of mis- and disinformation surrounding false claims about the attacker’s identity and how it fuelled offline violence. Our findings have been featured across various media outlets such as CNN, The Guardian, Sky News and more.  

In a live interview with Sky News, ISD’s Director of Communications and Editorial, Tim Squirrell explained how “it’s very clear to us [ISD] that what is happening here is an attempt to hijack a really difficult, sensitive issue as a mechanism to push hate.” 

Speaking with CNN, Tim added that although social media’s algorithms played a role in amplifying false claims about the attacker’s identity, there was also a “huge amount of organising happening” across far-right communities. 

Jacob Davey, ISD’s Director of Policy and Research for Counter-Hate, spoke with the New York Times about social media platforms’ internal policies prohibiting hate speech and other illicit content, noting their inconsistent enforcement. “Given the confrontational tone set by some companies it will be challenging to hold them accountable for harmful but legal content if they decide they don’t want to enforce against it,” he said.  

Additionally, in another interview with The Guardian, Tim added, “this is a febrile environment and is only exacerbated by the health of the online information environment which is the worst it’s been in recent years. There is a risk that this moment could be exploited to attempt to create street mobilisation that more closely resembles the 2010s.” 

Senior Analyst Ciarán O’Connor discussed with the Guardian the similarities between the Southport riots and the far-right anti-immigrations riots in Dublin last November. In that case, word about the stabbing in Dublin spread before media or authorities even said anything. Muslims and foreigners were being blamed and one man was falsely identified. 

Analyst Hannah Rose also featured in the Financial Times commenting on the “overtly hateful” claims that remained on the X despite violating platform policies. 

Our full investigation outlining how these false claims contributed to offline mobilisation is available in our website.