A violent riot sparked by a knife attack at a children’s dance workshop in Southport, England, on July 29 has recently spread to many parts of the United Kingdom. Two children were killed and nine injured, six critically, in the ferocious knife attack. Two adults are also in a critical condition after being stabbed as they tried to protect the children, Merseyside police said.
After the incident, local police did not reveal the name of the murderer in accordance with the law because he was under 18 years old. Subsequently, various rumors began to circulate on the internet, suggesting that the murderer was a refugee who arrived in the UK last year to seek asylum.
The British court soon deprived the murderer of anonymity protection, and the police announced his real name, emphasizing that his birthplace was Cardiff. Despite the clarification by the British authorities, rumors continued to circulate on the internet.
Local public opinion believes that the continued fermentation of the riots has been due to extreme right-wing forces using social media to spread rumors and fuel the flames of unrest. The riots also reflect some deep-seated problems such as the divisions in British society, the immigration crisis, and the difficulty of supervising transnational social media platforms.
False information has been wantonly spread on social media by the extreme right-wing forces to provoke anger and fuel the rioting, and related algorithms have contributed to the “viral spread” of false information. Data show that 86 percent of respondents believe that social media is an important driving force behind the riots.
After the knife attack, rumors about the identity of the perpetrator were forwarded by millions of people on major social media platforms in the form of pictures, texts, videos, etc. Some accounts also used exaggeration and mixed-cut videos to gain traffic and create chaos. Some well-known internet figures have become promoters of the riots.
According to the British police, many protests that turned into violent conflicts were organized by far-right groups on the internet. They used rhetoric such as “Save Our Children” to repeatedly hype up immigration topics and incite public sentiment. As such, social media platforms amplified far-right voices and stimulated public sentiment, exacerbating the severity of the incident.
Yet illegal immigration is indeed a problem for the UK. Some British people blame immigrants for social problems such as insufficient medical resources and the declining quality of public services.
And the government’s trust crisis, and the difficulty of supervising transnational social media platforms have contributed to the severity of the rioting. Many people believe that it is difficult for the British government to put national needs above party interests because politicians do not really care about the demands of the people.
Meanwhile, some social media platforms owned by foreign companies have neglected to review and manage the accounts of far-right activists, resulting in the infectious spread of misinformation and hate speech.
XINHUA NEWS AGENCY