Islamabad, Aug 5: Monday is the day for an emergency meeting between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and police commanders, following days of increasingly violent anti-immigration protests that resulted in the burning of cars and buildings and the targeting of hotels housing asylum seekers. Following the deaths of three girls in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England, 420 people have been arrested as a result of the riots that have broken out in towns and cities over the past week.
When false information about the alleged attacker’s identity as a radical Islamist who had recently arrived in Britain circulated online, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim organizations quickly took advantage of the murders. The suspect was born in Britain, according to the police, and they are not considering this to be a terrorism act.
In response to recent immigration to the south coast, young men wearing balaclavas and flying British flags threw rocks and yelled “Stop the Boats” during the weekend-long unrest in Belfast, Liverpool, Bristol, Tamworth, and Middlesbrough, all in Northern Ireland. Protesters attempted to loot an asylum-seeking motel in Rotherham, northern England.
Police Disinformation on the Internet
Police have stated that high-profile individuals’ dissemination of internet misinformation is what is causing the violence. The media has accused one of the most well-known of these, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the leader of the anti-Islam English Defence League group, of disseminating false material to his 875,000 followers on X.Tommy Robinson, the alias of Yaxley-Lennon, wrote, “They are lying to you all.” “trying to incite the country against me. You are my voice, and I need you.”
The owner of X, Elon Musk, also commented on the violence. In response to an X post that attributed Britain’s chaos on open borders and enormous migration, he wrote: “Civil war is inevitable.” Broadcasters were informed by Interior Minister Yvette Cooper that the government would be pursuing the matter with social media firms because tensions had been heightened and exacerbated online.
She avoided answering questions about whether foreign governments had been involved, saying instead, “I think what you’ve seen is that networks of different individuals and groups that have been trying to fan the flames,” to Sky News.
She acknowledged that individuals had opinions and worries about matters like immigration, but she blamed the violence on violent, racist extreme groups. “Reasonable people who have all those sorts of views and concerns do not pick up bricks and throw them at the police,” she stated.
