Fake news lit the fuse in Britain

The turmoil is a first test for Kir Starmer, who was elected Prime Minister last month, as he tries to restore order after five days of sporadic, violent demonstrations that risk enclosing the first chapter of his tenure as a summer of riots in the United Kingdom.

The knife attack in Southport last week, with three dead and eight injured, on certain social networks was attributed to an immigrant. Police later named the suspect as 17-year-old Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, who was born in Wales. But conspiracy theories became viral as they were fomented by many far-right activists who encouraged the protests. Violence flared up in Southport with videos showing hundreds of rioters hurling bricks, bottles, and flares at police officers. In the following days it was extended to other cities, including Liverpool, Manchester, and Belfast. In Bristol protesters clashed with other protesters who claimed to be activists against racism. A library was torched in Liverpool. In the northern town of Sunderland a police station was set on fire. In Hal they broke windows in a hotel which was thought to accommodate asylum seekers. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, a supermarket was set on fire on Saturday night, after a concentration of 600 people in the city center. The protests do not appear to be orchestrated by a person or group. “Although many protesters are supported by organized far-right, there is no central organizer,” said Hope Not Hate, a group campaigning against racism and fascism. “The majority (of protesters) seem to be guided locally and their mobilisations are occasionally announced”.

The videos posted on the Internet often show people shouting “stop the boats”, a reference to the thousands of immigrants illegally transported to Britain by boats from France. In the United Kingdom the Far Right – once spearheaded by the largely inactive British National Party today – has now broken down into many organizations, which often direct or influence activists via the Internet.

” Misinformation directs this heinous violence and we know that many of those attending these so-called protests do so in direct proportion to what they read on the Internet,” said Ben- Julian Harrington, member of the National Council of Police Chiefs coordinating law enforcement in the United Kingdom. Nigel Farage, head of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, initially asked via the Internet why police did not handle the Southport attack as a terrorist-related and then wondered whether they were “hiding us the truth”. He later stated that he does not support violence and criminal elements. He asked the police to take tougher action against the protesters. The previous time Britain faced unrest on this scale was 2011, after the murder of a black man in northern London, who sparked looting and arson attacks. At that time Starmer was the senior prosecutor in the country and oversaw rapid trials to punish those involved. I want you to know that this violent mob does not represent our country,” Starmer said Sunday. “And we will bring them before Justice”.