LONDON: Over the past week, England and Northern Ireland have been gripped by unrest amid a cloud of misinformation and perceived government failures. However, commentators are divided as to the underlying causes beyond the “far-right thug” claim.
Not since the 2011 police shooting of a black man sparked days of nationwide unrest has the UK seen scenes of such violence, with mobs tearing up shops, torching cars, targeting mosques and even torching hotels where asylum seekers were staying. .
Everyone from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to the world's second-richest man Elon Musk – who compared the scenes unfolding in the UK to a civil war – weighed in on what caused the unrest and what it could mean for the country.
Responding to Sunday's attempted arson at the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where asylum seekers were being housed pending a decision on their status, Starmer said the rioters would face “the full force of the law”.
“I guarantee you will regret having a part in this mess, either directly or those who instigated this action online and then ran away themselves,” he told a news conference. “This is not a protest, this is organized, violent violence and it has no place on our streets or online.”
Such was the extent of the damage to communities and the number of police officers injured that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, said some of those arrested could face terrorism charges.
Speaking to the BBC, Parkinson said: “Where you have organized groups planning activities to promote an ideology and planning really, really serious disruption, then yes, we will consider terrorist offences.
“Yes, we are willing to deal with terrorist offenses and I know of at least one case where this is happening.”
Sources who spoke to Arab News disagreed with claims that the violence was anything more than “violent violence”. However, they cautioned against dismissing the need to examine fundamental social problems.
One source who works in education, who asked not to be identified, said the mess came against the backdrop of an election campaign that played on legitimate concerns by trying to blame the country's ills on the alleged negative effects of mass immigration.
“Mix that with the misinformation about the identity of the girls' killer that served as a catalyst for the riots, and what you're seeing is the chickens coming home to roost,” the source said.
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Three girls were killed and 10 other people – eight of them children – were injured in an attack on a children's dance and yoga workshop at a community center in Southport, north of Liverpool, on July 29, allegedly by a 17-year-old.
Because of the suspect's age, police were required by law to withhold his identity, inadvertently creating a vacuum that was quickly filled by false information circulating on social media claiming the suspect was a Muslim who had entered the country illegally.
The spread of false information has not been helped by the complicity of online influencers, who themselves regularly post anti-immigration and anti-Muslim sentiments to further a political agenda.
Zouhir Al-Shimale, head of research at Valent Projects, a UK firm that uses artificial intelligence to combat disinformation, said identifying the root causes of the unrest could be difficult because there was a mix of deliberate manipulation by those pushing an anti-immigrant agenda and widespread bot activity.
“Since August 3, accounts and networks associated with Reform UK have been massively active on X and Facebook claiming two-tier policing,” Al-Shimale told Arab News, referring to the right-wing political party that made gains in the recent general election.
“They're pouring a lot of resources into it to test certain lines and narratives and see what sticks, but basically they're suggesting that the police are allowing Muslim thugs to run rampant while they target 'white patriots' who are just mad at the 'state their nation.”
Proposals for two-tier policing centered on alleged “soft handling” by police of “left-wing, pro-Palestinian” marches held weekly in London since October 7 and earlier Black Lives Matter rallies.
Based on the extent of the disorder alone, the comparison is poor. A recent pro-Palestinian march involving up to 10,000 people resulted in the injury of three police officers. By contrast, the roughly 750 people who rioted in Rotherham on Sunday left at least 12 police officers injured.
Opposition to the riots is almost universal across all sections of the public, with Reform UK voters the only group showing any substantial level of support, at 21 per cent, according to YouGov polling data.
Even this is a clear minority, three-quarters of reform voters (76 percent) are against riots. Support among other voters is much lower – only 9 per cent of Tories, 3 per cent of Labor voters and 1 per cent of Lib Dems support the mess.
INNUMBERS
• 400 people arrested after six days of rioting in parts of England and Northern Ireland.
• 6,000 police mobilized nationwide to deal with further expected unrest.
However, there is sympathy with the ideas that fuel the riots and far-right groups such as the English Defense League, which are believed to be driving the violence.
Indeed, legal immigration to the UK has risen dramatically over the past 30 years, while illegal arrivals across the Channel have continued despite the previous government's pledge to “stop the boats”.
The latest migration estimates from the Office for National Statistics suggest that around 1.2 million people migrated to the UK in 2023, while 532,000 people emigrated, making net migration 685,000.
In 2023, 29,000 people were found to have crossed the English Channel in small boats, down from 46,000 in 2022, although the total number of small boats has increased significantly since 2018.
According to Oxford University's Migration Observatory, the proportion of foreign-born workers employed in the UK has risen steadily over the past two decades, from 9 per cent of the employed workforce in the first quarter of 2004 (2.6 million) to 21 per cent in the first quarter in 2024 (6.8 million).
It found that migrant men were more likely to be employed than UK-born men, but migrant women were less likely to be employed.
Although asylum seekers are not allowed to work or receive a house or substantial welfare benefits while their claims are being assessed, sections of the UK public fear that the needs of new arrivals are being put before their own while the racial makeup of their communities is changing around them.
Despite this, voter behavior in the recent UK general election suggests that immigration is not a priority issue for most. “A much better (though still imperfect) indicator is national elections,” wrote Noah Carl, a sociologist and right-wing commentator, in a recent article for Aporia Magazine.
“Britain held one a few weeks ago and the results provide little basis for the claim that 'the English' have had 'enough' of mass immigration. 56 percent of white people voted for left-wing or progressive parties, and another 26 percent voted for the Conservatives (the de facto pro-immigration party). Only 16 percent supported the reform.
“In fact, the share of white people supporting left-wing or progressive parties has increased since 2019. I say this as someone with broadly restrictive views.
“Now you could argue that the situation has changed since the election because of the Leeds riots, the Southport stabbing and other incidents. But it hasn't really changed.
“Prior to the last election, white Brits were already exposed to Islamist terrorism, grooming gangs, BLM riots, the 'decolonization' movement, accusations of 'white privilege' etc. Yet they still chose to vote overwhelmingly for migration. parties.
“Although polls suggest that most Britons want immigration to be reduced, they clearly care more about issues such as the cost of living, housing and the NHS.”
Many commentators therefore place much of the blame on social media platforms for acting as an accelerator of violence as misinformation-lashed rioters seek to emulate the disorder seen elsewhere in the country and fueled by their smartphones.
However, part of the blame may also lie in the pervasive political discourse in the UK today.
Paul Reilly, senior lecturer in communication, media and democracy at the University of Glasgow, said one of the root causes may be the lack of accountability of social media platforms for enabling the spread of misinformation. But he also pointed to another group.
“I would say that political commentators, influencers and politicians have played a key role in this by creating a toxic political discourse on migration,” Reilly told Arab News.
“Social media platforms could do a better job of removing hate speech and misinformation. But they are not considered publishers and are responsible for the content they host. I would expect a debate about temporarily shutting down online platforms during civil unrest as a viable policy.”
However, Reilly also disputed Southport MP Patrick Hurley's claim that the violence taking place was entirely down to “lies and propaganda” spread on social media.
Instead, citing his research into the role of social media in political unrest in Northern Ireland, he says that while online platforms were used to share rumors and misinformation that fueled tensions, such online activity tended to “follow rather than precede the unrest”.
He wrote in The Conversation: “If political leaders are serious about avoiding further violence, they should start by moderating their own language.
But he added: “It is expedient for politicians to blame online platforms rather than acknowledge their role in creating a toxic political discourse around asylum seekers and immigration.”
One legal researcher, who did not want to be named, told Arab News that the riots were symptomatic of a failure to address widening wealth inequalities, which created space for disinformation to spread.
“It's simply a replica of what we've seen time and time again with cuts to public services. Amid the absence of government accountability, the population will be looking for someone to blame,” the person said.
“If there is one bright spark, it seems that those who come out to clean up after the rioters represent a much larger proportion of the affected communities, suggesting that there is still a contribution to a better tomorrow for a government that cares.”
