UK leader accuses far right of hijacking a town's grief after killing of 3 children sparks violence

Keir Starmersir

Let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them: violent disorder was clearly whipped up online,

Starmer said

I’m not going to stand here and cast judgment on what others have been saying,

he said when pressed on the Reform UK leader’s comments

Has Nigel Farage condemned the violence? Has he condemned the EDL? Fomenting discord in society is what these people seem to exist for,

he added

Nigel Farage is giving the EDL succor, undermining the police, creating conspiracy theories, and giving a false basis for the attacks on the police,

Neil Basu told the newspaper

A minority of people are attempting to portray that this inhumane act is somehow related to the Muslim community, ... Frankly it is not, and we must not let those who seek to divide us and spread hatred use this as an opportunity.”

it said on the X

I don’t know, but I think that’s a fair and legitimate question,

he said in a video message

There is a clear attempt to exploit the tragic incident by right wing influencers and grifters, pushing an anti-immigrant and xenophobic agenda despite there being no evidence,

Jones wrote in a thread an X explaining his snap research

There’s a responsibility to say the police are doing a difficult job, local authorities, all of the services that are on the ground,

she said in an interview on LBC

We have laws and we have proscribed groups and we do look at that and it is reviewed regularly. So I’m sure that that will be something that the home secretary will be looking at as part of the normal course of what we do and the intelligence that we have,

she told LBC

This is clearly not a case of accidental mischaracterisation. This is Reform and Farage in particular actively spreading disinformation and actively using insinuation to incite anxiety, concern and inflame emotions,

Cox said

He is an MP. If he has questions, he could have asked them in the House of Commons yesterday – but he wasn’t there. Instead he prefers to encourage those spreading misinformation on here. Utterly shameful.”

He said

It is sickening to see this happening within a community that has been devastated by the tragic loss of three young lives,

Alex Goss, assistant chief constable of the Merseyside Police, said in a statement Tuesday

It looks like the tweet has been deliberately fabricated to generate hostility toward ethnic minorities and immigrants, and it’s a potentially Islamophobic piece of propaganda,

said Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at the University of Loughborough and expert in the spread of online misinformation

There has been much speculation and hypothesis around the status of a 17-year-old male who is currently in police custody and some individuals are using this to bring violence and disorder to our streets,

police said in a statement

It looks like a news website, feels like a news website, but of course it isn’t — it’s based off a WordPress template,

he said, after examining its underlying code, which is publicly available

This is the only thing that I will write, but please stop the violence in Southport tonight.”

According to the Liverpool Echo news website, Jenni Stancombe, the mother of one of the slain girls, wrote on social media

You care more for Afghanis, Somalis, Eritreans, Syrians, Pakistanis,

he shouted, red faced

There’s has been no EDL for over a decade.”

The former de facto leader of the EDL, Tommy Robinson, issued denials on social media, writing

Busy now, please check back later.”

A Washington Post request for comment, sent to X’s main media email account, was met with an automated response

We also know that historically social media algorithms are tweaked in order to further that content, because they know that it promotes engagement, and engagement over the long term is their business model,

he said