Publication of a Russian-linked fake news site led to anti-migrant pogroms in the UK.
The wave of misinformation that led to anti-migrant riots in several UK cities was launched by the fake news site Channel3 Now. According to anti-disinformation experts interviewed by The Telegraph, the site is “clearly connected to Russia.”
Following the Southport dance studio attack in which three girls aged between 6 and 9 were killed, Channel3 Now published a “news story” reporting that the attacker was "17-year-old Muslim refugee Ali Al-Shaqati." But Al-Shakati has never existed.
Channel3 Now, a website that masquerades as a legitimate US news outlet but acts as an “aggregator” for real news stories as well as fake viral claims, published the claim on the back of speculation which appeared to have started on X, just two minutes after blogger Bernie Spofforth’s post who constantly spreads conspiracy theories .
Channel3 Now's tweet, which has 3.000 subscribers, collected 27 million views. This was possible because “many Channel3 Now subscribers are bots that share viral messages,” explained Stephen Hutchings, professor of Russian studies at the University of Manchester and principal investigator of the anti-disinformation project (Mis)Translating Deceit.
What had begun as a trickle then became a flood, sending the conspiracy theory pouring out through social media anew, where the name was boosted by thousands of other Russia-linked accounts before being repeated by authentic Russian state media, which cited Channel3 Now in its reporting.
The claim was meanwhile picked up by far-Right figures such as Tommy Robinson – founder of the anti-immigrant English Defence League, which played a major role in instigating the riots in Southport and elsewhere this week – and notorious influencer Andrew Tate, whose posts about Al-Shakati garnered millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes.
And as news of the attacker’s supposed identity spread, anger grew, sparking the riots that rocked the Merseyside town that evening before spreading out across the country.
After a mourning ceremony for the dead children, pogroms began in Southport. Hundreds of people gathered outside the mosque and began throwing bricks, bottles and other objects at the mosque and the police. At least 39 police officers were injured . Anti-migrant pogroms later took place in Hartpool and Sunderland in the North-East of Great Britain.
However, the real suspect named in court was Axel Rudakubana, born 2006 in Cardiff to Rwandan parents.
Channel3 Now is part of a complex web of disinformation, Hutchings said. In 2019, the channel was renamed and began publishing English-language videos about Pakistan, suggesting it had been “hijacked and repurposed” rather than being part of a disinformation network in the first place.
▪️The channel has been operating under its current name for two years. In 2023, it registered a domain in Lithuania. The site's IP address belongs to two Pakistani citizens.
▪️The site has one author named James Lawley, whose LinkedIn account says he owns a gardening company in Canada. A search of Lawley's LinkedIn photo yielded no results. Also, there are no other mentions of his company online. Probably this 'James Lawley' does not really exist.
▪️When the name of the real suspect became known, the Channel3 Now YouTube channel disappeared, and a statement apologizing for the “misleading information” appeared on the publication’s website.
This rebuttal is an “authentication technique,” says Hutchings. “They need to create the impression that they made an innocent mistake.”
In recent years, Russia has created several disinformation networks aimed at foreign audiences. There are many like it, who post hundreds of stories a day with a pro-Russian or anti-western slant intended to sow confusion and destabilise society in Britain and elsewhere.
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