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The resurgence of far-right violence in the UK, such as that seen in recent days, is largely due to the country’s decision to allow its leaders to return to social media and spread false information, researchers told British media.
In a statement, Bristol University professor Stephen Lewandowski, disinformation expert and director of policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) Jacob David, and head of research at Hope Not Hate Joe Mulhall agreed that social networks such as “X” allow their “leading figures” access to a platform that manipulates violence through lies, thereby facilitating the growth of extremism.
For these researchers, the situation is exacerbated by the multiplicity of “unknown and unreliable sources” that have replaced the traditional position of immediately identifiable political structures and even movements.
The experts spoke to the Guardian as far-right uprisings have taken place in several British cities and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following the murder of three girls in Southport, northwest England, over the past three days. Last Monday, a children’s dance studio in England was attacked.
The Independent and Prospect magazine tracked the origin messages calling for violence based on research by Marc Owen Jones, a professor at Hamid bin Khalifa University in Doha and an expert on social justice, political repression and digital authoritarianism.
Jacob Davey of the ISD told the Guardian that the danger is growing as “traditional” fascist movements such as the English Defence League (EDL) stop operating as an organisation and expand on social media.
He told the Guardian that, like other countries, the UK now has a “more fragmented far-right movement”. “There are some high-profile figures at the protests, including some outspoken neo-Nazis, but there is also an informal network of concerned local citizens and football hooligans.”
“All of these people are connected through these ‘online’ networks” activated by “extremely cynical” characters, many of whom are based abroad and fueled by viral disinformation from unknown and untrustworthy sources.”
For Joe Mulhall, a researcher at the group Hope Not Hate, this is a “post-organizational” campaign where far-right leaders manipulate people into “taking ‘temporary’ steps or posting their own misleading and misleading statements ‘online’ and fake videos about issues like immigration and child grooming networks.”
The murder of three children in Southport sparked a spiral of violence, fuelled by false claims that the perpetrator was an asylum seeker called “Ali Shakati”.
According to an investigation by Marc Owen Jones, “just hours after a boy was arrested in connection with a stabbing” and given assurances from authorities that he was born in Britain 17 years earlier, “a false narrative began to circulate on social media claiming he was a Muslim immigrant” under “observation by MI6 (Secret Service) and Liverpool Mental Health Services”.
None of this is true, writes Alan Rusbridger, editor of Prospect, citing research by Marc Owen Jones, who found that such “speculation quickly generated 27 million reactions on social media” after a post by “self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate”. Romania’s authorities in charge of human trafficking, rape and organised crime have 10 million followers, while British far-right leader Tommy Robinson has 800,000.
Alan Rusbridger wrote: “One of the most prominent purveyors of this misinformation is a shadowy group calling itself Channel3 Now,” which originated by broadcasting “videos of Russian car rallies,” although its source address could be Pakistan or the United States.
Against this backdrop, Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform Party, which rose to prominence in the pro-Brexit campaign, simply said the media and authorities “are not telling the truth,” questioning why “this incident is not being treated as an act of terror.”
In an opinion piece in The Independent, Prospect’s editors directly blamed Elon Musk for much of the investigation, removing the mantle of false information and support for violence. X (formerly Twitter), when resetting a previously blocked account after a network purchase.
Stephan Lewandowsky, a professor at the University of Bristol, extended the criticism to Facebook’s “scandal machine”: “This is a serious problem that can be easily solved by modifying the algorithms so that they highlight information based on quality rather than notoriety.”
“There is good evidence that blocking works. If you remove someone from a social network, their influence goes down,” said the researcher, who studies the phenomenon of disinformation. But he warned there was a risk of “a certain degree of displacement” of followers to other platforms. There was a need to “not behave like censors”.
Jacob David reminded the Guardian that far-right activity on the internet needs the right conditions to thrive, from unemployment to housing. “The far right gives a simple answer: ‘The reason you didn’t get a pay rise is because of this group here.'”
For Mulhall, there is a need to urgently develop a community cohesion strategy that starts with central government itself and extends to local level. “Multiculturalism is demanding.” It is harder for misinformation to spread “when (different communities) interact in clubs, parks or libraries.”
Mr Davey called for “greater collaboration between government departments” and “links between local authorities and the police”. “We’ve seen the far right become emboldened by the lack of such collaboration”, the Internal Security Agency investigator said, recalling recent attacks on immigration centres in Kirkby and Dover. “This doesn’t come out of nowhere,” he said, referring to the violence in recent days.
The editor of Prospect reinforces the warning about social networks: “We risk sleepwalking back into the world that Hannah Arendt analyzed six years after the Second World War.” Finally, he quotes one of the philosopher’s important works, The Origins of Totalitarianism: “The ideal subject of a totalitarian regime is not a committed Nazi or a committed Communist, but someone who distinguishes fact from fiction and accepts reality as it is. The distinction between true and false no longer exists.”
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