Police address falsehoods including ‘incorrect’ name as far-right activists and conspiracy theorists share content
Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesA flood of misinformation about the Southport attack has been spread on numerous social media platforms by sources ranging from far-right activists to fake news websites and conspiracy theorists.
The only details released about the suspect by police are that he is a 17-year-old from the village of Banks in Lancashire, who was born in Cardiff. A prominent British conspiracy theorist had earlier been filming at the crime scene. A YouTube video where he calls for emergency military rule and mass deportations received 30,000 views in the two hours after it was posted on TuesdayThe ‘“source’” for the false name of the attacker appears to be a website seen by the Guardian calling itself Channel 3 Now, which mixes potentially AI-generated US and UK news content and is styled like a mainstream American network news channel.
Tommy Robinson – who is believed to be somewhere in Europe after leaving the UK on Sunday night on the eve of his scheduled appearance at the high court in alleged contempt of court proceedings – has been exploiting the deaths of the children to push an anti-immigration narrative on channels including the X account that Elon Musk recently restored to him.
However, another Bannatyne tweet remained online in which he retweeted a claim by the Robinson ally Laurence Fox that police were suppressing details, and asked: “What information are they suppressing?” As well as the site which appears to have been the source for the false name, Dacombe cited the Unity News Network, a British conspiracy theory website headed by a former Conservative and Labour councillor, which has also jumped on the attack.
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