Hot Questions and Answers | How did social media rumors trigger large-scale riots in the UK?
2024-08-11
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Xinhua News Agency, London, August 10 (Reporter Sun Xiaoling) Recently, a violent riot caused by a knife attack spread to many parts of the UK, and protesters clashed violently with the police. British Prime Minister Starmer held an emergency meeting to demand the strengthening of police deployment and the intensification of criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.
Local public opinion believes that the continued fermentation of the riots is inseparable from the extreme right-wing forces using social media to spread rumors and fuel the riots. The riots also reflect deep-seated problems such as the division of British society, the immigration crisis, and the difficulty of supervising transnational social media platforms.
The picture shows the file photo of British Prime Minister Starmer. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ying)Why did the riots happen in many places?
The riot was triggered by a knife attack in which a 17-year-old man attacked with a knife in Southport, Merseyside, northwest England on July 29, killing three children and injuring many others.
After the incident, the local police did not reveal the murderer's name 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 his anonymity protection, and the police announced his real name, emphasizing that his birthplace was Cardiff, England.
Despite the clarification by the British authorities, various rumors are still rampant on the Internet. Protests subsequently took place in many cities including London, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast, and gradually escalated into violent riots. Some protesters destroyed shops, mosques, refugee shelter hotels, libraries, police stations, etc., attacked police officers, burned police cars, and attacked ethnic minorities.
British media pointed out that this was the largest violent riot in the UK in 13 years. The British government held emergency meetings several times to deal with the riots. As of the 9th, nearly 600 people in the UK had been arrested for riots, more than 150 people appeared in court, and more than 50 people had been sentenced or were waiting for sentencing. The courts accelerated the trial of the perpetrators of the violent riots. On the 9th alone, many people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 20 months to two years for posting racial hate speeches and inciting riots on social media.
Who is behind this?
During the violent riots, false information was spread rampantly on social media and exploited by far-right forces, and related algorithms facilitated the "viral spread" of false information. According to data from the British YouGov polling company, 86% of respondents believed that social media was an important driving force behind the riots.
After the knife attack, rumors about the identity of the attacker were forwarded by millions of people on major social media platforms in the form of pictures, texts, and videos. Some accounts also exaggerated the incident and remixed videos to gain traffic and create chaos.
Jacob David, director of policy and research at the British think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said that the British far-right organization English Defence League, far-right figure Tommy Robinson and some well-known Internet figures have all become promoters of the riots.
British police said that 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 issues and incite public sentiment.
British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the media that social media should "bear some responsibility" for the violent riots and that it had "added a rocket boost" to the spread of false information and content inciting violence.
Stephen Lewandowski, a professor at the University of Bristol, said that social media platforms amplified far-right voices and stimulated public emotions, exacerbating the severity of the incident.
The picture shows immigrants arriving at the coast of Dungeness, UK by boat on November 24, 2021. (Photo by Steve Finn, Xinhua News Agency)What deep-seated problems does this reflect in the UK?
The violent riots originated from a public security incident, reflecting deep-seated social contradictions such as the UK's immigration problem, the crisis of trust in the government, and the difficulty in regulating transnational social media platforms.
In recent years, the problem of illegal immigration in the UK has become increasingly serious. According to data from the UK Home Office and the Ministry of Defense, as of the end of June this year, more than 13,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the English Channel to the UK, a four-year high. In response to this problem, the Conservative government had previously pushed for a plan to deport illegal immigrants. After the Starmer government came to power, it abolished this plan and instead established a "Border Security Command" and strengthened cooperation with European countries to combat human trafficking crimes, but its effectiveness remains to be seen.
At the same time, the British government is also facing a serious crisis of trust. According to a report by YouGov, a polling company, before this year's general election, 49% of voters "almost never" believed that the British government would put national needs above party interests, and 73% of voters believed that politicians did not really care about the people's demands. Some British people blamed many social problems, such as insufficient medical resources and declining quality of public services, on immigrants.
In addition, the difficulty of supervising transnational social media platforms is becoming increasingly prominent. Brown, an associate professor at the University of Bath in the UK, said that some social media platforms have neglected to review and manage the accounts of far-right activists, resulting in the "unprecedented spread" of misinformation and hate speech. In response, British regulators have issued an urgent warning to these social media platforms, requiring them to "take immediate action" to deal with content such as "inciting hatred" or "provoking violence" on the UK network. British Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Care also met with representatives of social media companies such as Facebook's parent company Metaverse and Platform X, urging them to work with the British government to prevent the spread of racial hatred and incitement to violence.
