After a young man killed three young girls aged between 6 and 9 and injured many more in the town of Soutport in England.
Soon later, information on Twitter, now known as X, surfaced online claiming that the perpetrator was a 17-year-old Muslim refugee. This was not true, as the murderer, Axel Rudakubana, was born in Britain and had lived in the country all his life in a family of Rwandan origin.
Nevertheless, the fake news had an impact. A tweet claiming the murderer was a Muslim amassed 27 million views, igniting unrest across the nation.
The source of this misinformation was the site Channel3 Now, which poses as an American news agency but is not. Channel3 Now mostly collects and publishes fake news and has roots tracing back to Russia. The site’s YouTube channel, launched 12 years ago, originally featured videos in Russian from the city of Izhevsk. In 2019, this changed to English-language content about the Middle East.
Channel3 Now picked up a tweet by Bernie Spofforth, known for spreading conspiracy theories. Although Spofforth deleted his tweet almost immediately, Channel3 Now managed to share it and did not remove it. Channel3 Now became the source from which the misinformation spread through social networks and into other media. Leaders of the English Defence League also propagated it.
The resulting riots are still ongoing in various cities across the UK. Despite the fake news being debunked long ago, the riots continue. Local police are urging people not to participate, as civilians, local businesses, public places, and police officers are suffering, with several officers already injured.
In essence, Russian fake news have sparked large-scale riots across the UK, demonstrating the power of this type of weapon.
