For several days, the country has been shaken by violent demonstrations, led by the extreme right, following a succession of rumors that circulated on social networks.
Yet another night of riots in the United Kingdom. After several days of xenophobic violence in the country, which began last weekend, after the brutal murder of three girls in the northwest of England, the British authorities have decided to place under protection the Muslim places of worship that have been targeted across the country.
The tragedy, which took place on July 29 in Southport, a small port town near Liverpool, sparked a surge in violence, fueled by rumors about the origins of the killer, a 17-year-old boy. As British law prohibits revealing the identity of a minor suspect, an Arabic-sounding name quickly circulated on Telegram loops, also accusing the perpetrator of being a Muslim asylum seeker.
The rumors were then amplified on traditional social networks, starting with X (ex-Twitter), a veritable echo chamber for fake news and conspiracy theories.
A Twitter Ban
As the BBC pointed outit was the far-right group English Defence League (EDL) that led this smear campaign, forcing the authorities to finally reveal the identity of the arrested suspect: Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to parents from Rwanda.
Still, the riots were already underway. The main protagonist, EDL founder Tommy Robinson, used X extensively to call for protests, while feeding his 900,000 followers with false information. In a cruel irony, he was permanently banned from Twitter in 2018 before being reinstated last November by a certain… Elon Musk.
“Civil war inevitable”
Because he’s the other character in this story. Not only has the billionaire reinstated many controversial figures on X (like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones) but he has also heavily relayed the riots in the United Kingdom, even evoking an “inevitable civil war” when the British government was trying to calm tensions.
Through this story, it is again social networks that are being singled out, at the very least for their lack of responsiveness, at worst for their inaction in curbing fake news.
While London has not yet raised the issue of immigration (the main concern of the British according to polls), the country intends to attack the platforms, demanding accountability from Musk, Zuckerberg and others. In the European Union, several investigations are underway for the lack of moderation of the various networks.
Thomas Leroy Journalist BFM Business
